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PHYSICAL  TRAINING 


A  FULL  REPORT  OF  THE 

PAPERS   AND    DISCUSSIONS 

OF  THE 

CONFERENCE    HELD    IN    BOSTON    IN 
NOVEMBER,    1889. 


REPORTED    AND    EDITED    BY    ISABEL    C.    BARROWS. 


BOSTON  : 

PRESS   OF  GEORGE  H.   ELLIS,  272    CONGRESS   ST. 
I899. 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE. 


THE  Conference  in  the  interest  of  Physical  Training  which  took 
place  in  Boston  November  last,  a  full  report  of  which  is  herewith 
presented,  was  held  in  pursuance  of  the  following  call :  — 

"  A  Conference  in  the  interest  of  Physical  Training  will  be  held 
in  Huntington  Hall,  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Boston, 
on  Friday  and  Saturday,  Nov.  29  and  30,  1889.  .  .  . 

"  The  object  of  this  Conference  is  to  place  before  educators  differ- 
ent systems  of  gymnastics,  and  to  secure  discussion  of  the  same, 
with  a  view  to  clearly  ascertaining  the  needs  of  schools,  and  deter- 
mining how  they  may  best  be  met. 

"The  Conference  will  be  presided  over  by  William  T.  Harris, 
LL.D.,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education.  .  .  . 

"  Many  prominent  educators  have  signified  their  intention  of  being 
present,  and  a  cordial  invitation  is  extended  to  all  who  are  interested 
in  this  important  subject." 

JOHN  W.  DICKINSON,  Sec'y  Mass.  State  Board  of  Education 

EDWIN  P.  SEAVER,  Suft.  of  Public  Schools,  Boston. 

FRANCIS  A.  WALKER,  President  Mass.  Institute  of  Technology. 

CHARLES  T.  GALLAGHER,  LIBERTY  D.  PACKARD, 

JOHN  G.  BLAKE,  M.D.,  SOLOMON  SCHINDLER, 

RUSSELL  ELLIOTT,  M.D.,  RICHARD  C.  HUMPHREYS, 

WILLIAM  H.  GRAINGER,  M.D.,  B.  B.  WHITTEMORE, 

CHARLES  M.  GREEN,  M.D.,  WILLIAM  A.  MOWRY, 

JAMES  S.  MURPHY,  J.  P.  C.  WINSHIP, 

EMILY  A.  FIFIELD,  THOMAS  J.  EMERY, 

JOSEPH  S.  FALLON,  SAMUEL  B.  CAPEN, 

GEORGE  R.  SWASEY,  L.  B.  PINGREE, 

Members  Boston  School  Committee. 


11 

A.  HEMENWAY. 
ROBERT  C.  METCALF. 
LOUISA  P.  HOPKINS. 
E.  L.  CALL,  M.D. 
LUCY  E.  SEWALL,  M.D. 
H.  I.  BOWDITCH,  M.D. 
CHARLES  F.  FOLSOM,  M.D. 
S.  G.  WEBBER,  M.D. 
C.  F.  WITHINGTON,  M.D. 


EDWARD  COWLES,  M.D. 
G.  F.  JELLY,  M.D. 
WALTER  CHANNING,  M.D. 
GEO.  B.  SHATTUCK,  M.D. 
A.  N.  BLODGETT,  M.D. 
C.  P.  PUTNAM,  M.D. 
J.  J.  PUTNAM,  M.D. 
HENRY  AHLBORN,  M.D. 


Education 
Library 

G\J 

9.65 
1327 


H.  G.  LELAND,  M.D.,  Medical  Director  Y.  M,  C,  A. 
E.  O.  OTIS,  M.D.,  Medical  Director  Y.  M.  C.  U. 
JOHN  B.  MoRAN,  M.D.,  Instructor  in  Hygiene,  Boston  Public  Schools. 
WILLIAM  F.  WARREN,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Boston  University. 
ALBION  W.  SMALL,  LL.D.,  President  of  Colby  University. 
ROBERT  H.  RICHARDS,  of  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 
MORTON  DEXTER,  Editor  of"  Congregationalist.n 
HELEN  SHAKER,  President  of  Wellesley  College. 

ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER,  KATE  GANNETT  WELLS, 

Of  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Education. 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS. 
MARY  E.  BLAKE. 
HELOISE  E.  HERSEY. 
MARIAN  HOVEY. 
MARY  B.  CLAFLIN. 
CATHARINE  IRELAND. 
ELIZABETH  R.  CABOT. 


ELLEN  M.  FOLSOM. 
PAULINE  A.  SHAW. 
SELMA  WESSELHOEFT. 
MARY  HEMENWAY. 
ISABEL  C.  BARROWS. 
AMY  MORRIS  HOMANS. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE, 


FIRST  SESSION: 

Physical  Training,  an  address  by  William  T.  Harris,  LL.D., I 

The  Nature  of  Physical  Training  and  the  Best  Means  of  securing  its 

Ends,  by  Edward  Mussey  Hartwell,  Ph.D.,  M.D., 5 

The  German  System  of  Gymnastics,  by  H.  Metzner,       23 

Discussion : 

Dr.  W.  T.  Harris, 28 

Edwin  P.  Seaver 28 

Dr.  E.  M.  Hartwell, 29 

Dr.  E.  Hitchcock 32 

Edwin  P.  Seaver, 32 

Dr.  E.  M.  Hartwell, 33 

Larkin  Dunton, 33 

Dr.  John  P.  Reynolds, 33 

The  Place  of  Physical  Training  in  a  Rational  Education,  by  Claes  J. 

Enebuske,  Ph.D 35 

SECOND  SESSION  : 

The  Chief  Characteristics  of  the  Swedish   System  of  Gymnastics,  by 

Nils  Posse,  M.G., 42 

Discussion : 

The  Earl  of  Meath, 51 

Dr.  J.  W.  Seaver, 52 

Dr.  W.  G.  Anderson, 54 

Some  Principles  regarded  as  Essential  in  the  Direction  of  the  Department 

of  Physical  Education  and  Hygiene,  by  Edward  Hitchcock,  M.D.,     .  57 

Discussion : 

Dr.  Alice  T.  Hall, 59 

Dr.  Helen  Putnam, 50, 

Dr.  E.  M.  Hartwell 61 

THIRD  SESSION: 

The  System  of  Physical  Training  at  the  Hemenway  Gymnasium,  by  D.  A. 

Sargent,  M.D 62 

Discussion : 

Dr.  Walter  Channing 77 

Miss  Lucile  Eaton  Hill, 79 

Dr.  Carolyn  C.  Ladd, 80 

Miss  Rutch  C.  Tousley, 80 


iv 

Ray  Greene  Huling, 81 

Dr.  L.  V.  Ingraham, 82 

Dr.  F.  N.  Whittier, 83 

General  Francis  A.  Walker, 85 

The  Laws  to  be  followed  in  teaching  Physical  Culture,  by  Dr.  C.  W. 

Emerson, 87 

FOURTH  SESSION  : 

Remarks  by  E.  P.  Seaver, 96 

The  Pedagogic  Phase  of  Physical  Training,  by  Hamilton  D.  Wey,  M.D.,  99 

Address  of  M.  de  Coubertin, 112 

Address  of  S.  S.  Curry, 115 

Military  Drill,  by  Hobart  Moore, 121 

Appointment  of  Permanent  Committee, 126 

Remarks  of  Dr.  D.  A.  Sargent 126 

Remarks  of  Nils  Posse, 128 

Remarks  of  Dr.  E.  M.  Hartwell, 129 

Resolution  of  Thanks, 132 

NAMES  OF  WRITERS  AND  SPEAKERS 133 

INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS  AND  BOOKS  TO  WHICH  REFERENCE  WAS  MADE,      .    .  134 


JFtrst  Session* 


PHYSICAL  TRAINING. 

A  CONFERENCE  in  the  Interest  of  Physical  Training  was 
held  at  Huntington  Hall,  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, Boston,  on  Friday  and  Saturday,  Nov.  29  and  30,  1889. 
William  T.  Harris,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion, presided.  In  opening  the  Conference,  Dr.  Harris  said: 

We  open  this  morning  a  Conference  devoted  to  the  con- 
sideration of  physical  exercises  for  the  development  of  the 
body.  Physical  training,  I  take  it,  is  a  part  of  the  subject  of 
hygiene  in  its  largest  compass,  which  includes  dietary  and 
digestive  functions,  and  matters  of  rest  and  repose  as  well  as 
matters  of  muscular  training.  We  wish  to  discuss  physical 
training  in  view  of  hygiene,  and  to  avoid,  if  we  can,  all  narrow 
interpretation  of  our  subject.  The  advantage  of  such  a  Con- 
ference as  this  is  that  extremes  come  together ;  and,  by  com- 
parison of  views,  each  one  learns  to  supplement  his  own 
deficiencies.  We  shall  all  be  delighted  to  find  new  phases  of 
the  subject.  Hygiene  wishes  to  make  the  most  of  the  body 
for  human  purposes, —  not  for  animal  purposes,  but  for  human 
purposes.  Hygiene  includes  several  departments,  of  which 
physical  training  is  one. 

I  shall  define  physical  training  as  the  conscious  or  voluntary 
training  of  the  muscular  side  of  our  system,  which  is  the 
special  side  under  the  control  of  the  will.  Of  course  we  under- 
stand that  the  vital  processes  go  on  without  the  will,  and  that 
this  is  an  advantage, —  it  is  better  that  they  should  remain  in- 
voluntary. Of  course  the  voluntary  system  has  relations  to 
the  involuntary  system,  and  this  is  one  of  the  first  questions 
which  have  been  considered  by  persons  who  have  thoroughly 
studied  physical  training.  What  can  we  do  with  our  wills  ? 
What  can  we  do  with  our  muscles  that  shall  help  on  the  vital 


processes  and  develop  them  ?  That  is  a  deep  subject.  It 
should  be  the  first  which  attracts  the  attention  of  persons  inter- 
ested in  physical  education,  and  it  should  be  also  the  last  one. 
We  ask  what  we  can  do  by  the  action  of  our  wills  in  the  matter 
of  developing  the  muscles  of  the  chest,  of  the  legs,  and  of  the 
arms,  and  inquire  what  are  the  relations  of  muscle-action  to 
digestion  and  sleep  and  such  matters.  We  have  not  yet 
probed  these  subjects  to  the  bottom,  nor  have  we  ascer- 
tained the  fundamental  relations  of  the  voluntary  to  the  in- 
voluntary functions  in  diseased  conditions.  We  are  continu- 
ously finding  some  new  phases,  and  I  suppose  the  medical 
profession  discover  more  new  facts  in  relation  to  this  than 
persons  specially  interested  in  physical  training  alone.  Phy- 
sicians discover  cases  in  which  some  oversight  in  regard  to 
will-training  has  resulted  in  interfering  more  or  less  with  the  in- 
voluntary processes,  so  that  the  latter  have  been  retarded,  thus 
injuring  some  of  their  functions.  We  all  acknowledge  the 
importance  of  discovering  and  settling  the  limits  between  these 
two  processes  and  defining  all  the  relations  between  the  in- 
voluntary vital  processes  and  the  conscious  voluntary  move- 
ments, and  the  transition  of  these  voluntary  movements  into 
involuntary  ones  again  through  the  principle  of  habit.  The 
exercise  of  the  muscles  by  voluntary  effort  calls  into  action 
the  higher  nervous  motor-centres  of  the  body  and  brain.  That 
is  to  say,  physical  training  such  as  is  advocated  by  us  relates 
especially  to  the  will,  and  therefore  to  the  very  highest  nerve- 
centres  of  the  physical  system.  This  reveals  its  relation  to 
rest  and  recreation.  Now,  when  one,  for  instance,  is  studying 
science  or  art  or  literature  or  any  school  studies,  he  is  exercis- 
ing these  same  high  nerve-centres.  Let  him  pass  from  study 
to  one  of  these  systematic  physical  exercises,  and  he  does  not 
get  the  required  rest.  It  is  not  rest  and  repose  from  the  exer- 
cise of  these  higher  nerve-centres,  at  least.  Of  course  all  of 
our  specialists  in  physical  training  know  that  it  is  not  a  relief 
from  will-tension,  and  the  question  remains  :  In  how  far  is  such 
exercise  as  that  valuable  ?  In  what  way  is  it  a  relief  ?  Those 
who  put  forward  theories  of  physical  exercise  and  training  have 
their  views  with  regard  to  this,  and  the  opinions  of  different 


individuals  vary.  I  take  it  that  one  of  the  most  important  re- 
sults of  this  Conference  will  be  the  adjusting  of  differences  of 
opinion  with  regard  to  this  point, —  in  how  far  the  use  of  the 
muscles  by  the  will  can  afford  rest  and  recreation  from  studies 
and  from  sedentary  occupations,  and  in  how  far  they  will  serve 
so  well  as  free  play.  We  all  know  the  difference  between  play 
and  work.  In  our  play,  caprice  governs,  and  there  is  real  re- 
pose for  the  will.  But  in  work  the  will  takes  the  body  and  the 
mind  and  puts  them  under  forms  prescribed  by  others  or  under 
such  forms  as  it  has  adopted  for  itself  in  its  rational  hours. 
Its  action  in  work  is  as  much  inhibitory  and  holding  back  as  it 
is  spontaneous  and  free  exercise.  But  play  is  not  inhibitory. 
Play  has  its  use  in  education.  We  are  discovering  more  and 
more  how  play  is  an  exceedingly  important  function ;  that  it  is 
the  source  of  the  development  of  individuality  through  spon- 
taneity. The  individual  through  play  learns  to  know,  to  com- 
mand, to  respect  himself,  and  to  distinguish  between  his  own 
impulses  and  inclinations  and  those  of  others.  Great  strength 
of  individuality  grows  from  play.  Nations  that  postpone  play 
until  maturity  fail  in  this  respect.  In  China  it  is  said  that  old 
men  of  sixty  enjoy  flying  kites.  In  this  country  boys  of  twelve 
or  fifteen  fly  kites ;  but  there  aged  men  love  to  do  it ;  and  chil- 
dren do  not  feel  the  same  interest  in  play  in  China  as  they  do 
here. 

These  considerations,  with  regard  to  the  relation  of  the  vol- 
untary culture  of  the  body  to  the  involuntary,  the  relation  of 
the  muscles  to  the  vital  organs,  have  been  receiving  much 
attention  in  the  new  physical  education :  the  old  physical  edu- 
cation thought  that  muscular  education  was  all  that  was  neces- 
sary to  the  training  of  the  body,  and  this  view  prevailed  here 
up  to  about  the  year  1860.  The  new  physical  education  began 
with  the  work  of  Dr.  Hitchcock  at  Amhcrst,  and  was  followed 
up  by  Dr.  Sargent  in  the  Hemenway  Gymnasium  at  Cam- 
bridge, Dr.  Hartwell  at  the  Johns  Hopkins,  and  their  co- 
workers  in  the  various  colleges  and  universities.  The  student 
now  studies  this  problem  broadly,  and  focuses  his  attention  on 
this  relation  of  the  voluntary  to  the  involuntary,  and  tries  to 
discover  whereby  the  vital  organs, —  the  lungs,  the  heart,  the 


stomach,  all  the  digestive  organs,  the  kidneys, —  in  short,  how 
all  the  functions  that  are  involuntary  in  their  action  may  be 
assisted  and  influenced  by  voluntary  action  and  motion.  The 
old  gymnastic  did  not  pay  attention  enough  to  this  relation  of 
exercise  to  the  vital  organs  to  discover  its  negative  effects.  It 
did  not  determine  the  limits  of  muscular  training.  In  the  case 
of  calisthenics,  for  example,  the  will-power  is  called  into  play, 
and  it  is  no  relief  from  the  strain  on  the  brain  to  go  from  the 
study  of  arithmetic  or  from  the  concentration  of  attention  on 
the  work  in  recitation  to  the  performance  of  physical  manoeu- 
vres that  demand  close  attention  to  the  teacher  who  gives  the 
signal  for  the  calisthenic  exercises.  A  very  powerful  exercise 
of  the  will  is  demanded  in  calisthenics,  whereas  free  play  (not 
systematic  games)  is  rest  for  the  will.  The  recess  spent  in 
play  in  the  school-yard  is  a  great  rest  and  refreshment.  I 
mention  this  because  there  has  been  a  movement  throughout 
the  country,  commencing  long  ago  in  Evansville,  Ind.,  to  do 
away  with  the  recess.  A  superintendent  who  had  given  much 
time  to  studying  the  moral  development  of  children  came  to 
believe  that  the  recess  is  the  cause  or  the  means  of  a  great 
deal  of  immorality,  and  that  by  abolishing  it  he  would  bring 
the  pupil  more  under  the  control  of  the  teacher,  thereby  in- 
creasing the  moral  hold  on  the  pupil.  That  movement  spread 
to  various  places  in  this  country.  Rochester  for  a  long  time 
has  had  no  recess.  At  Albany,  also,  the  schools  have  no 
recess.  This  abolishing  of  the  recess  has  led  our  conservative 
educators  who  hold  their  faith  in  the  old  regulation  to  look 
with  suspicion  on  this  experiment,  and  to  try  to  discover  in 
what  forms  there  is  apparent  a  physical  reaction,  and  in  what 
forms  there  are  counter-movements  on  the  part  of  physicians 
and  others,  tending  to  mould  public  opinion. 

I  hope  that  the  papers  and  discussions  will  discuss  elabo- 
rately and  settle  these  questions'  which  naturally  arise  in  our 
minds.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  as  the  first  speaker 
Dr.  Edward  M.  Hartwell  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  who  will 
speak  on  the  Nature  of  Physical  Training  and  the  Best  Means 
of  securing  its  Ends. 


THE  NATURE  OF  PHYSICAL  TRAINING,  AND  THE 
BEST  MEANS  OF  SECURING  ITS  ENDS. 

BY   EDWARD    MUSSEY   HARTWELL,    PH.D.,    M.D., 

ASSOCIATE  IN  PHYSICAL  TRAINING  AND  DIRECTOR  OF  THE  GYMNASIUM,  IN  THE 
JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY,  BALTIMORE. 

IN  ordinary  speech  it  is  convenient  to  speak  of  moral,  mental, 
and  physical  training  as  if  they  had  little  or  nothing  in  common  ; 
though,  strictly  speaking,  the  principles  which  underlie  each  are 
practically  the  same.  My  main  contention  in  regard  to  the 
nature  of  physical  training  is,  that  bodily  exercise  constitutes  so 
considerable  and  necessary  an  element  in  all  human  training 
that  physical  training  is  entitled  to  be  recognized  and  provided 
for  as  an  integral  and  indispensable  factor  in  the  education  of 
all  children  and  youth. 

The  aim  of  any  and  of  all  human  training  is  to  educe  faculty, 
to  develop  power.  As  the  means  of  developing  power,  certain 
actions  are  selected,  taught,  and  practised  as  exercises ;  and 
power  when  developed  takes  the  form  of  some  action  or  exer- 
cise due  to  muscular  contractions.  Viewed  thus,  muscular  exer- 
cise is  at  once  a  means  and  an  end  of  mental,  and  moral,  as  well 
as  of  physical  training ;  since  without  bodily  actions  we  have  no 
means  of  giving  expression  to  mental  power,  artistic  feeling,  or 
spiritual  insight.  Without  muscular  tissue  we  cannot  live  or 
move. 

It  behooves  us  then,  at  the  outset,  if  we  wish  to  discuss  intel- 
ligently the  means  of  securing  the  ends  of  physical  training,  to 
consider  somewhat  closely  the  nature  and  proper  effects  of  mus- 
cular exercise.  We  need  consider  here  only  such  muscular  tissue 
as  is  found  in  the  voluntary  muscles,  which  constitute  nearly  one- 
half  of  the  human  body  by  weight.  Contractility,  the  distinc- 
tive endowment  of  muscular  tissue,  has  its  seat  in  the  proto- 
plasmic contents  of  the  muscle  cells.  The  amount  of  motion 


which  is  transmitted  by  a  contracting  muscle  to  the  bones  of  a 
joint  —  or  whatever  parts  of  the  body  the  muscle  is  set  apart 
to  set  in  motion  —  depends  upon  the  number  and  arrangement 
of  its  component  cells.  These  muscle  cells  are  sausage-shaped 
bodies,  varying  from  ^  to  -j-fo-  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  are 
seldom  more  than  i£  inches  long.  The  cell  protoplasm  is  con- 
tained in  a  tubular  sheath  of  tough,  elastic,  connective  tissue, 
and  is  closed  at  both  ends.  Sarcolemma  is  the  technical  name 
given  to  this  sheath.  The  sarcolemma  has  a  single  opening, 
through  which  the  essential  central  strand  —  the  so-called  axis 
cylinder  of  a  nerve  fibre  —  finds  its  way  into  the  muscle  fibre 
or  cell.  The  terminal  portion  of  the  nerve  fibre  spreads  out 
under  the  sarcolemma,  forming  a  flat  protuberance  known  as 
the  motor  end-plate,  and  then  ramifies  in  fine  fibrils  throughout 
the  contractile  cell-substance.  At  its  hither,  or  central  end, 
the  axial  fibre  of  the  nerve  is  continuous  with  the  irritable  gray 
matter  of  a  nerve  cell.  We  have,  then,  the  contractile  substance 
of  the  muscle  cell  connected  with  the  irritable  stimulus-gen- 
erating and  transmitting  substance  of  the  central  nerve  cell, 
the  connecting  link  being  the  axis  cylinder  of  the  muscle  or 
motor  nerve,  which  cylinder  is  simply  a  portion  of  the  nerve 
cell's  irritable  contents  long  drawn  out,  in  the  form  of  a  strand 
(which  is  protected  and  insulated  by  appropriate  sheaths  which 
we  need  not  here  describe)  until  it  reaches  the  muscle  fibre,  in 
which  it  takes  the  form  of  the  end-plate  and  its  ultimate  fibrils. 
What  is  true  of  a  single  muscle  fibre  is  true  of  all  the  fibres  of 
a  given  muscle ;  and  what  is  true  of  one  voluntary  muscle  is 
true  of  the  entire  five  hundred.  Voluntary  muscles  have  sen- 
sory as  well  as  motor  nerve  fibres.  They  are  channels  for  the 
impulses  which  give  rise  to  muscular  sensibility,  and  are  con- 
nected with  centrally  situated  nerve  cells  which  minister  to  our 
muscular  sense,  —  the  sense,  that  is,  which  keeps  us  informed 
concerning  the  condition  of  the  muscles,  and  the  extent  to 
which  they  are  contracted. 

Under  normal  conditions  the  muscle  cell  shortens  only  when 
it  is  stimulated  through  the  discharge  of  some  portion  of  the 
energy  of  a  motor  nerve  cell  into  it.  Muscular  contractions 
are  therefore  dependent  upon  the  action  of  the  nerve  cells  in 


which  they  are  initiated  and  controlled.  Without  dwelling  upon 
the  details  of  structure  presented  by  muscles  and  their  nervous 
connections,  it  is  sufficient  to  recall  to  mind  that  a  single  muscle 
is  a  vast  aggregation  of  contractile  cells,  arranged  in  myriads  of 
linear  series  called  fibres,  which  in  turn  are  gathered  into  pack- 
ets, technically  termed  fasciculi ;  that  muscle  arteries  and  veins 
usually  lie  alongside  of  each  other  amongst  the  fasciculi,  while 
their  capillaries  form  a  fine  mesh-work  lying  between  and  upon 
the  fibres  and  cells,  without  penetrating  the  sarcolemma  of  any 
cell ;  that  the  walls  of  the  capillaries  are  permeable  to  lymph,  as 
the  fluid  portion  of  the  blood  is  called,  so  that  muscle  fibres  are 
enabled  to  derive  their  food-supply  from  the  lymph  in  which  they 
are  bathed  ;  that  fibres  and  fasciculi,  together  with  their  accom- 
panying nerve  fibres  and  nutrient  blood-vessels,  are  supported 
and  bound  together  by  elastic  connective  tissue ;  and  that  the 
muscle  so  made  up  has  its  own  special  sheath  and  is  bound  bj 
inelastic  tendons  to  the  parts  which  are  approximated  through 
its  action. 

The  effects  of  exercise  upon  a  muscle  and  its  nervous  connec- 
tions now  demand  our  attention.  Immediately  a  muscle  begins 
working,  under  whatever  stimulus,  the  blood  stream  passing 
through  it  becomes  changed.  The  arterial  twigs  dilate ;  more 
blood  is  poured  into  the  capillary  vessels  which  surround  its 
fibres ;  and  more  blood  flows  away  from  it,  through  its  veins, 
towards  the  heart.  If  the  supply  of  arterial  blood  to  a  muscle  is 
cut  off  or  diminished,  its  irritability  is  lowered ;  i.e.,  a  stronger 
stimulus  is  required  to  make  it  contract.  The  same  result  fol- 
lows also,  if  it  is  fed  with  blood  deprived  of  oxygen,  or  otherwise 
poisoned ;  or  if  the  muscle  vein  is  tied  and  the  waste  products, 
normally  drained  off  through  the  veins,  are  retained  in  the 
muscle.  The  irritability  of  a  muscle  is  also  lowered  by  pro- 
longed or  excessive  stimulation,  even  when  its  in-going  and  out- 
going blood  streams  are  unobstructed.  These,  then,  are  the 
main  conditions  for  the  health  of  a  working  muscle :  a  full 
supply  of  proper  food  and  of  oxygen,  unimpeded  and  sufficient 
drainage,  and  rest  at  due  intervals.  Given  these  three  condi- 
tions in  the  body,  and  exercise  of  a  working  muscle  causes  it  to 
increase  in  size  and  weight,  through  an  increase  of  the  size  and 


8 

number  of  its  fibres.  Furthermore,  a  working  muscle  diffeis 
from  a  resting  muscle  in  that  it  is  appreciably  hotter ;  by  the 
presence  of  a  low  murmur,  called  the  muscle  sound ;  and  on 
account  of  certain  electrical  peculiarities  which  it  presents.  Now 
a  healthy  muscle  habituated  to  exercise,  a  trained  muscle,  that 
is,  can  do  more  work,  and  do  it  better,  than  an  unexercised 
muscle,  and  for  two  reasons.  Exercise  makes  the  muscle  larger, 
harder,  and  stronger,  improving  it  simply  as  a  tool  in  all  its 
structure ;  and  secondly,  the  muscle  responds  more  quickly  and 
fully  to  the  stimuli  by  which  it  is  stirred  up  to  work.  In  other 
words,  the  muscle  becomes  more  responsive  and  obedient  to  its 
stimulators,  the  nerve  centres,  through  its  better  acquaintance 
with  them.  Growth,  or  increase  in  the  size  and  number  of  its 
structural  elements,  and  development,  or  increased  facility  in 
its  functional  activity,  are  the  main  effects  of  exercise  in  the 
case  of  a  single  muscle.  The  same  is  true  of  the  muscular 
system  as  a  whole.  Exercise  enlarges  and  strengthens  it  on 
the  one  hand,  and  renders  it  more  readily  discriminative  and 
responsive  as  regards  stimuli,  on  the  other. 

Muscular  activity,  too,  is  one  of  the  chief  agents  in  promoting 
wholesome  tissue  changes  in  all  of  the  bodily  organs,  and  deter- 
mining the  normal  growth  and  development  of  the  organism  as 
a  whole.  The  normal  growth  and  balanced  working  of  the 
organs  concerned  in  the  digestion  and  assimilation  of  the  food  ; 
the  circulation  and  oxygenation  of  the  blood ;  and  the  secretion 
and  excretion  of  waste  or  noxious  products  of  tissue  changes,  are 
all  largely  promoted  by  well-regulated  muscular  exercise.  The 
influence  of  exercise  in  these  respects,  and  in  securing  the  full 
and  symmetrical  growth  of  the  bones  and  muscles  is  somewhat 
generally,  though  vaguely  appreciated,  and  constitutes  the  bur- 
den of  eulogy  and  exhortation  of  most  of  the  articles  and  ad- 
dresses of  those  who  advocate  physical  training. 

The  nervous  element  involved  in  muscular  exercise  is  oftener 
overlooked  or  neglected  than  recognized  and  set  forth.  Maclaren, 
whose  book  on  "  Training  in  Theory  and  Practice  "  is  the  best 
of  its  class  in  English,  defines  exercise  as  "  muscular  movement " 
simply,  and  declares  its  object  to  be  the  "destruction  and  reno- 
vation of  tissue."  This  is  the  ordinary  view,  from  which  you 


will  find  but  little  deviation.  "  We  seek  in  vain  in  most  physio- 
logical text-books,"  says  Du  Bois  Reymond,  Professor  of  Physi- 
ology in  the  University  of  Berlin,  "for  instruction  respecting 
exercise.  If  it  is  given,  only  the  so-called  bodily  exercises  are 
generally  considered,  and  they  are  represented  as  merely  exer- 
cises of  the  muscular  system.  Therefore  it  is  not  strange  that 
laymen  in  medicine,  teachers  of  gymnastics,  and  school  teachers 
believe  that.  Yet  it  is  easy  to  show  the  error  of  this  view,  and 
demonstrate  that  such  bodily  exercises  as  gymnastics,  fencing, 
swimming,  riding,  dancing,  and  skating,  are  much  more  exercises 
of  the  central  nervous  system,  of  the  brain  and  spinal  marrow. 
It  is  true  that  their  movements  involve  a  certain  degree  of  mus- 
cular power,  but  we  can  conceive  of  a  man  with  muscles  like 
those  of  the  Farnesian  Hercules,  who  would  yet  be  incompetent 
to  stand  or  walk,  to  say  nothing  of  his  executing  more  com- 
plicated movements." 

The  arm  of  the  blacksmith  has  been  brought  into  play  so 
often,  by  writers  and  talkers  upon  exercise,  that  every  school 
boy  credits  the  statement  that  muscles  grow  larger,  harder,  and 
stronger  when  duly  exercised,  and  become  weak,  flabby,  and 
wasted  if  they  are  suffered  or  forced  to  remain  inactive.  It  is 
less  obvious,  though  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  that  use  and  dis- 
use work  similar  effects  in  the  case  of  nerve  cells  and  fibres, 
both  sensory  and  motor.  There  is  abundant  evidence,  though 
much  of  it  is  of  the  negative  sort,  to  show  that  the  exercise  of 
the  muscles  not  only  reacts  upon  the  nerves  and  centres  with 
which  they  are  connected,  in  such  wise  as  to  enhance  the  power 
and  ease  with  which  they  originate  and  transmit  stimuli,  but  that 
it  also  leads  to  an  increase  in  the  size,  number,  and  elaboration 
of  their  parts.  But  this  evidence  is  chiefly  to  be  sought  in  the 
writings  of  those  who  have  made  the  normal  and  diseased  con- 
ditions of  the  nervous  system  their  special  field  of  study ;  since 
text-book  makers  and  the  writers  of  popular  articles  seldom 
make  use  of  the  material  which  has  been  accumulated  by  pro- 
fessional physiologists,  and  those  who  devote  themselves  to  the 
study  and  care  of  the  idiotic,  the  paralyzed,  and  the  insane. 

The  fact  should  never  be  lost  sight  of  that  a  single  muscle  is 
not  a  simple  organ,  but  is  made  up  of  two  clearly  distinguish- 


IO 

able,  though  conjoined,  mechanisms :  a  contractile,  executive 
mechanism,  the  muscle  proper,  and  a  stimulating,  regulative 
mechanism  consisting  of  nerve  fibres  and  gray-matter  nerve 
cells.  Each  mechanism  has  its  blood-vessels  for  supplying  food 
and  drainage ;  and  the  amount  of  blood  supplied  to  each  is  pro- 
portionate to  its  functional  activity.  If  in  life  the  two  mechan- 
isms become  dissociated,  or  if  either  suffer  from  mal-nutrition, 
unregulated  exercise,  or  structural  depravity,  the  dual  organ  is 
thrown  out  of  gear,  and  its  working  becomes  disordered  or 
abolished  in  much  the  same  way  as  in  a  human  being,  when  it 
is  attempted  to  split  him  into  a  mental  part  and  a  bodily  part, 
and  to  train  the  dissevered  fractions  to  functionate  as  entities. 
Muscular  action  is  then  a  resultant  effect  due  to  the  balanced 
working  of  the  conjoined  mechanisms  alluded  to.  The  nervous 
mechanism  is  concerned  in  a  somewhat  higher  kind  of  work 
than  that  of  its  merely  muscular  colleague,  and  may  be  said  to 
represent  the  movements  of  which  the  latter  is  the  seat  and 
instrument.  Between  the  nervous  arrangement  which  repre- 
sents the  twitch  of  a  single  muscle  inserted  into  the  base  of  a 
hair  follicle,  and  that  which  represents  and  governs  the  varied 
and  rapid  muscular  adjustments  which  characterize  the  hand 
and  fingers  of  a  cunning  craftsman  or  artist,  there  exists  every 
grade  of  complication. 

If  we  compare  an  adult  man  and  one  of  the  highest  of  the 
lower  animals,  in  respect  of  the  movements  of  which  they  are 
capable,  we  find  that  they  possess  many  in  common,  such  as 
those  of  locomotion,  respiration,  and  the  like,  but  that  man  is 
distinguished  from  the  brute  by  certain  movements  such  as  those 
involved  in  maintaining  the  erect  posture,  and  in  the  action  of 
the  hands  and  vocal  organs ;  and  that,  corresponding  to  these 
two  classes  of  movements,  there  are  two  classes  of  nervous 
mechanisms  by  means  of  which  they  are  represented.  These 
mechanisms  have  been  well  termed  fundamental  and  accessory 
respectively. 

Similarly  it  is  demonstrable  that  while  the  human  infant  and 
adult  possess  many  nervous  mechanisms  identically  alike  in 
structure  and  function,  the  adult  is  characterized  by  certain 
other  mechanisms  whose  structural  peculiarities,  connections, 


II 

and  powers  have  been  evolved  and  superadded  as  the  result  of 
growth  and  training.  The  law  of  evolution,  as  applied  to  the 
nervous  system,  is  now  very  generally  recognized  by  neurolo- 
gists. In  Ross's  "Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System,"  for  in- 
stance, this  law,  which  was  originally  enunciated  by  Herbert 
Spencer,  is  described  as  "a  progressive  integration,  both  of 
structure  and  function,  during  which  there  is  a  passage  from 
the  uniform  to  the  multiform,  the  simple  to  the  complex ;  from 
the  general  to  the  special.  The  nervous  system  of  man  is  at 
first  similar  to  that  possessed  by  all  animals  which  possess  a 
nervous  system,  or,  at  any  rate,  all  those  which  are  sufficiently 
elevated  to  possess  a  spinal  cord  ;  but  as  development  proceeds, 
the  nervous  system  of  man  becomes  differentiated  from  that  of 
an  ever-increasing  number  of  the  lower  animals,  while  still  main- 
taining a  general  likeness  to  the  nervous  system  of  the  higher 
animals  up  to  the  time  of  birth.  This,  then,  constitutes  the 
fundamental  portion  of  the  nervous  system  of  man ;  but  after 
birth  the  accessory  portion  which,  up  till  this  time  only  appears 
in  a  rudimentary  condition,  now  undergoes  progressive  develop- 
ment. It  will  then  be  seen  that  the  fundamental  portion  is  first 
developed,  and  that  the  superaddition  of  the  accessory  portion 
greatly  increases  the  multiformity,  the  complexity,  and  the 
speciality1  of  the  human  nervous  system,  and  that  it  is  the 
latest  product  of  its  evolution." 

There  are  certain  areas  in  the  gray  matter  of  the  fore-brain 
of  man  whence  proceed,  it  is  now  generally  held,  stimuli  to 
the  most  important  groups  of  voluntary  muscles.  In  one  of 
these  regions  are  the  centres  which  control  the  different  groups 
of  muscles  of  the  upper  extremity  ;  and  for  the  sake  of  simplicity 
we  may  consider  that  the  centres  of  the  muscles  which  move 
the  shoulder,  elbow,  wrist,  and  fingers  lie  near  to  and  are  cpn- 
nected  with  one  another.  The  movements  of  the  shoulder  and 
elbow,  as  well  as  those  of  the  trunk,  are  fundamental  and  well 
organized  in  the  infant,  as  compared  with  those  of  the  wrist 
and  fingers,  which  are  accessory,  and  later  acquired.  In  order 
that  the  movementsof  the  di  ff erent  segments  of  the  fore-limb 
should  be  properly  co-ordinated  as  to  force,  direction,  and  degree, 

1  The  word  is  so  spelt  in  Ross. 


12 

their  motor  centres  must  habitually  discharge  their  stimuli  in 
due  sequence  and  degree.  This  comes  only  through  practice. 
Experiments  on  young  puppies  show  that  their  motor  areas  are 
not  sufficiently  developed,  until  they  are  ten  days  old,  for  them 
to  make  voluntary  movements  with  their  limbs.  Ferrier  declares 
that  "the  degree  of  development  and  control  which  a  puppy 
reaches  in  ten  days  or  a  fortnight  is  not  attained  by  the  human 
infant  under  a  year  or  more."  The  infant,  through  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  appropriate  accessory  centres,  first  gains 
control  over  its  foot  and  leg,  then  over  its  arm  and  hand,  and, 
later,  over  tongue  and  lips.  It  is  evident  that  the  arms  of  a 
blacksmith,  and  those  of  a  five-year-old  boy,  and  of  an  infant 
differ  greatly  as  regards  size,  strength,  and  skill ;  but  the 
essential  differences  which  exist  between  them  reside  in  the 
nervous  mechanisms  which  represent  the  movements  of  which 
their  respective  muscles  are  capable,  rather  than  in  the  muscles 
themselves.  Not  only  are  the  motor  nerves  of  the  blacksmith 
the  largest,  but  the  cells  in  his  motor  areas  are  also  more  nu- 
merous, larger,  more  branched,  and  more  widely  connected  with 
other  cells.  Exercise  plays,  if  not  the  predominant,  at  least  a 
very  considerable,  part  in  producing  this  result ;  and  the  still 
more  important  result,  viz.,  that  the  motor  centres  of  the  black- 
smith discharge  their  stimuli  more  directly,  steadily,  accurately, 
and  tirelessly  into  their  appropriate  muscles  than  do  those  of  his 
apprentice.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  show,  though  it  could  easily 
be  done,  did  time  permit,  that  the  organs  of  special  sense  and  the 
sensory  centres  are  similarly  affected  and  improved  by  exercise. 
The  obvious  effects  of  exercise  are  at  once  seen,  if  one  com- 
pares the  right  and  left  arms  of  the  average  blacksmith  with 
one  another.  It  is  well  known  that  the  centres  which  control 
the  right  hand  are  situated  in  the  cortex  or  outer  layer  of 
gray  matter  of  certain  portions  of  the  left  fore-brain ;  and  that 
those  which  control  the  left  hand  are  in  the  right  fore-brain. 
Flechsig,  who  has  made  exhaustive  studies  as  to  the  course 
and  number  of  the  motor  fibres  which  connect  the  muscles  of 
the  two  extremities  with  their  respective  main  centres,  concludes 
that  the  number  of  fibres  going  to  the  right  hand  is,  to  the 
number  of  fibres  going  to  the  left  hand,  as  three  to  two. 


13 

The  mere  disuse  of  a  muscle  causes  it  to  dimmish  in  size. 
This  wasting  is  technically  called  atrophy.  The  most  extreme 
forms  of  muscular  atrophy  and  paralysis  are  due  to  diseased 
conditions  which  originate  in  nerve  centres  or  nerve  fibres, 
though  to  the  uninstructed  eye  the  muscles  would  appear  to  be 
the  only  organs  affected.  Lesions  in  the  central  nerve  system 
may  cause  the  bones  to  atrophy,  as  well  as  the  muscles.  The 
development  of  a  group  of  muscles,  of  an  entire  limb,  or  even 
of  one  side  of  the  body,  may  be  arrested  by  reason  of  certain 
forms  of  central  nervous  disease  which  occur  in  infancy  and  child- 
hood. Observations  made  upon  the  brains  of  persons  born  with 
an  arm  or  hand  lacking,  taken  in  connection  with  those  made 
upon  the  brains  of  persons  who  had  had  an  arm  or  hand  ampu- 
tated, go  to  prove  that  the  suppression  or  considerable  diminu- 
tion of  certain  movements  brings  about  a  condition  of  atrophy, 
or  arrested  development,  as  the  case  may  be,  in  those  centres 
which  would  normally  represent  such  movements.  One  may 
attain  to  the  stature  and  semblance  of  manhood,  and  yet,  by 
reason  of  the  arrested  development  of  certain  of  his  motor 
centres,  be  nothing  better  than  an  infant,  or  a  mere  animal,  as 
regards  his  powers  of  action :  while  epilepsy,  paralysis,  and 
atrophy  may  reduce  a  man,  stage  by  stage,  to  the  condition  of 
an  untrained  child,  or  of  a  helpless  idiot,  or  even  to  that  of  a 
living  corpse. 

The  functional  improvement  of  the  nervous  mechanism  which 
represents  any  movement,  whether  it  be  simple  or  complicated, 
reflex,  automatic,  or  voluntary,  is  the  most  important  effect  of 
muscular  exercise ;  or,  in  other  words,  muscular  training  which 
fails  to  develop  brain  power,  falls  short  of  its  aim.  It  is  not 
altogether  clear  just  how  it  comes  about  that,  through  trial  and 
repetition,  an  action  which  is  at  first  a  difficult  or  impossible 
feat  becomes  a  pleasurable  accomplishment,  then  a  routine  per- 
formance, and  at  last  an  almost  instinctive  act.  But  there  is  a 
settled  conviction  among  those  who  know  most  about  healthy 
and  diseased  nerves,  that  the  frequent  or  habitual  passage  of 
stimuli  from  a  given  group  of  cells  through  definite  fibres  to 
the  muscles  concerned  in  a  given  movement,  leads  to  some 
kind  of  a  rearrangement  of  the  molecules  composing  the  irritable 


14 

protoplasm  of  fibres  and  cells,  so  that  less  and  less  resistance  is 
offered  to  the  passage  of  subsequent  impulses  from  the  same 
source.  Somehow  or  other  the  memory  of  past  actions  and  the 
stimuli  which  evoked  them  becomes  imbedded  or  organized  in 
the  motor  centres.  His  once  too  vividly  impressed  sensory 
centres  cause  the  burnt  child  to  dread  flame ;  and  the  difficulty 
of  interesting  an  old  dog  in  new  tricks,  except  so  far  as  he 
delights  to  criticise  and  decry  them,  arises  from  the  preoccupa- 
tion of  his  centres  by  old  impressions,  rather  than  from  their 
increasing  insusceptibility  to  fresh  ones. 

From  careful  studies  made  as  to  the  character  of  the  dreams 
of  the  blind,  it  appears  that  the  memory  of  visual  objects  is  not 
organized  until  between  the  fifth  and  seventh  year  of  life.  Per- 
sons born  blind  do  not  dream  of  objects  in  the  outer  world ;  and 
those  who  become  blind  before  attaining  their  fifth  year  do 
not  dream  of  objects  seen  by  them  before  their  loss  of  sight. 
They  are  blind-minded  as  well  as  blind-eyed  as  regards  such 
objects.  There  are  authentic  cases  recorded  of  persons  whose 
memory  of  objects  —  seen  before  the  access  of  their  blindness  — 
persisted  for  twenty,  thirty,  and  even  fifty  years  ;  then  the  record 
of  their  visual  impressions  became  effaced,  and  they  ceased  to 
dream  of  objects  in  the  outer  world.  The  case  of  a  man  born 
without  either  hands  or  feet  is  in  point  here.  Although  he  had 
eyesight  he  did  not  dream  of  executing  hand  or  foot  move- 
ments ;  yet  he  had  sufficient  use  of  his  stumps  to  write  what 
is  termed  "  a  good  hand."  There  was  no  record  of  hand  or  foot 
movements  in  the  centres  which  ordinarily  control  such  move- 
ments ;  so  that  he  was  unable  to  dream  of  movements  which 
he  had  never  executed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  instances  are 
very  numerous  in  which  men,  who,  having  lost  a  limb  by  ampu- 
tation, could  feel  their  fingers  or  toes  while  awake,  and  dream 
in  sleep,  or  when  awake,  of  making  complicated  movements 
with  their  lost  members.  "  Persons  who  have  had  an  arm  am- 
putated," says  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell,  "are  frequently  able  to  will 
a  movement  of  the  hand,  and  apparently  to  execute  it  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent.  A  small  number  have  entire  and  pain- 
less freedom  as  regards  all  parts  of  the  hand."  They  must  be 
blind-minded,  indeed,  who  can  deny  in  the  face  of  such  facts 


15 

that  muscular  exercise  plays  a  part  in  the  development  of  brain 
power. 

"The  muscles,"  says  Dr.  Crichton-Browne,  an  eminent  Eng- 
lish writer  on  insanity  and  kindred  diseases,  "  not  only,  by  the 
locomotion  which  they  render  possible,  widen  the  field  from  which 
our  sense  impressions  are  gathered,  but  also  by  the  experiences 
which  their  own  activities  involve,  expand  our  mental  resources 
a  thousand  fold.  An  analysis  of  our  ideas  at  once  reveals  to  us 
that  we  have  few  that  are  of  purely  sensory  origin  ;  our  ideas 
of  form  are  not  mere  revived  optical  impressions,  which  are 
properly  limited  to  color,  but  ocular  impressions  combined  with 
ideal  ocular  movements.  Our  idea  of  a  circle  is  a  combination 
of  an  ideal  colored  outline  with  an  ideal  circular  sweep  of  the 
eyeballs,  or  it  may  be  of  the  tactile  impressions  coinciding  with 
an  ideal  circumduction  of  the  arm  or  hand,  or  perhaps  both 
these  factors  combined.  And  so  it  is  with  our  ideas  of  weight, 
distance,  and  resistance,  which  all  involve  sensory  and  motor 
factors  ;  and  to  revive  in  memory  any  such  ideas  is  to  revive 
both  the  sensory  and  motor  elements  of  their  composition,  and 
to  repeat  definitely  in  certain  nerve  centres  the  processes  which 
correspond  with  certain  motor  acts." 

Now  the  centres  of  motor  ideation  require  to  be  exercised  in 
order  that  they  may  be  properly  developed,  and  may  contribute 
usefully  to  mental  processes  ;  and  hence  muscular  training  is 
likely  to  assume  a  more  important  and  precise  place  in  our  edu- 
cational systems  of  the  future  than  it  has  done  hitherto.  The 
defective  exercise  of  any  group  of  muscles  during  the  growth 
period  of  its  own  particular  centre  will  result  not  only  in  the 
dwarfing  of  that  centre,  but  a  corresponding  hiatus  or  a  general 
weakness  must  exist  in  the  whole  mental  fabric. 

From  this  we  might  deduce  that  swaddling  bands  so  applied 
at  birth  as  to  restrain  all  muscular  movements,  and  kept  on 
during  infancy  and  childhood,  would  result  in  idiocy  —  a  specu- 
lation to  which  the  wretched  muscular  development  of  most 
idiots  and  imbeciles,  and  the  fact  that  their  mental  training 
is  most  successfully  begun  and  carried  on  through  muscular 
lessons,  give  some  countenance.  We  should  also  have  to  infer, 
that  in  order  to  hold  up  a  sound  and  vigorous  brain,  we  must 


i6 

insure  free  exercise  to  the  different  groups  of  muscles  in  the 
order  of  the  development  of  their  centres,  and  must  in  no 
degree  interfere  with  the  natural  sequence  of  their  evolution. 
That  being  so,  we  must  necessarily  ascertain  what  that  natural 
sequence  is  which  is  so  important  a  guide  to  education ;  for,  in 
our  present  ignorance  of  it,  we  may  unwittingly  be  doing  much 
mischief. 

Suppose  that  we  are  encroaching  on  the  time  at  which  hand 
centres  ought  to  receive  their  most  valuable  education, — their 
nascent  period,  —  and  are  devoting  that  time  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  tongue  and  lip  centres,  then  we  should  be  impairing  the 
full  development  of  the  brain ;  for  the  hand-controlling  centre, 
if  not  fully  exercised  at  its  nascent  period,  can  never  afterwards 
attain  to  the  highest  cunning.  But  it  seems  that  not  only 
tongue,  but  hand,  and  foot,  and  eye,  and  arm,  and  every  muscle 
of  the  body,  must  be  trained  in  due  season,  if  education  is  to  do 
what  we  expect  of  it,  and  result,  not  in  headaches,  and  imbe- 
cilities, and  nervousness,  and  insanity,  but  in  well-balanced 
growth  of  body  and  mind. 

It  seems  to  me  evident  that  muscular  exercise  deserves  more 
attention  than  educators  in  this  country  have  ever  been  willing 
to  give  it,  and  that  when  properly  chosen,  regulated,  and  guided, 
it  may  make  a  boy  into  a  better  man,  in  many  respects,  than  his 
father  was,  and  enable  him  to  transmit  to  his  progeny  a  veri- 
table aptitude  for  better  thoughts  and  actions.  Herein  lies  the 
power  of  the  race  for  self -improvement,  and  the  evolution  of  a 
higher  type  of  man  upon  the  earth. 

"  I  do  not  think,"  says  Bagehot,  in  his  "  Physics  and  Politics," 
"  that  any  who  do  not  acquire  this  notion  of  a  transmitted 
nerve-element  will  ever  understand  the  connective  tissue  of 
civilization.  We  have  here  the  continuous  force  which  binds 
age  to  age,  which  enables  each  to  begin  with  some  improve- 
ment on  the  last,  if  the  last  did  itself  improve,  which  makes 
each  civilization,  not  a  set  of  detached  dots,  but  a  line  of  color, 
surely  enhancing  shade  by  shade.  There  is  by  this  doctrine  a  phys- 
ical cause  of  improvement  from  generation  to  generation,  and  no 
imagination  which  has  apprehended  it  can  forget  it ;  but  unless 
you  appreciate  that  cause  in  its  subtle  materialism ;  unless  you 


17 

see  it,  as  it  were,  playing  upon  the  nerves  of  men,  and  age  after 
age  making  nicer  music  from  finer  chords,  you  cannot  compre- 
hend the  principle  of  inheritance,  either  in  its  mystery  or  its 
power." 

We  have  seen  that  the  effects  of  exercise  upon  a  single  muscle 
are  chiefly  two.  On  the  one  hand,  there  results  a  general  con- 
dition which  may  be  termed  the  heightened  health  of  the  neuro- 
muscular  machine,  which  state  of  health  involves  the  attain- 
ment and  maintenance  of  a  normal  degree  of  size,  strength,  and 
working  power  in  its  structural  parts ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  a 
more  complex  and  special  effect,  viz.  the  acquisition  or  organ- 
ization by  its  neural  parts,  of  proper  habits  as  regards  the  orig- 
ination, transmission,  and  regulation  of  stimuli.  The  ends  of 
exercise  may  then  be  characterized  as  the  promotion  of  health 
and  the  acquisition  of  correct  habits  of  action.  The  first  is  a 
hygienic  end,  while  the  second  is  a  distinctly  educational  end. 
It  matters  not  whether  we  consider  a  single  muscle,  which 
admits  of  only  a  single  limited  motion,  or  a  group  of  muscles, 
or  the  communal  structure  we  call  the  human  body,  or  a  class 
of  school  children,  or  a  regiment  of  soldiers ;  the  ends  of  exer- 
cise in  each  case  are  the  same  and  can  only  be  attained  by  a 
combination  of  hygienic  and  educational  measures. 

The  main  field  of  education  is,  then,  the  nervous  system,  and 
the  especial  province  of  physical  training  is  found  in  its  accessory 
portions.  The  principles  of  all  forms  of  physical  training,  how- 
ever various  and  divergent  their  special  ends  may  be,  are  based 
upon  the  power  of  the  nervous  system  to  receive  impressions 
and  register  them  or  their  effects ;  in  other  words,  upon  its 
ability  to  memorize  the  part  it  has  played  in  acquired  move- 
ments, and  on  occasions  to  recall  and  revive  such  movements. 

It  is  coming  to  be  clearly  recognized  that  the  function  of  our 
public  and  preparatory  schools  and  colleges  is  not  to  fit  their 
scholars  to  engage  as  specialists  in  either  intellectual,  commer- 
cial, or  industrial  pursuits.  The  same  rule  holds  good  as  to  the 
kind,  or,  rather,  degree  of  physical  training  which  should  be 
aimed  at  in  our  schools  and  colleges.  It  is  not  their  business 
to  train  up  ball-players,  carpenters,  clerks,  or  professionals  of 
any  kind.  General  bodily  training  is  the  kind  demanded ;  but 


18 

training  so  general  that  it  is  vaguely,  or  spasmodically,  or  half- 
heartedly  carried  out,  or  worse  still,  that  is  left  to  run  itself  in 
accordance  with  the  whim  or  frenzy  of  the  persons  to  be  trained, 
will  surely  and  deservedly  fall  short  of  success.  Intelligence, 
system,  organization,  funds,  and  patience  are  just  as  impera- 
tively required  in  physical  training  as  in  the  training  of  engineers, 
musicians,  or  philologians. 

The  law  of  the  evolution  of  the  nervous  system  seems  to  me 
to  furnish  a  sufficient  criterion  by  which  to  estimate  the  worth  or 
success  of  any  scheme  or  system  of  physical  training.  Any  system 
that  does  not  provide  first  of  all  and  continuously  for  the  train- 
ing and  exercise  of  the  central  or  fundamental  groups  of  muscles 
will  fail  utterly  in  securing  either  the  hygienic  or  the  educational 
end  of  exercise ;  and  any  system  which  substitutes  training  of 
the  accessory  neuro-muscular  mechanisms  for  that  of  the  funda- 
mental ones,  or  which  exacts  undue  work  of  undeveloped  acces- 
sory centres,  or  attempts  their  training  out  of  the  proper  order  of 
their  ripening,  is  bound  to  contribute  more  towards  the  promo- 
tion of  brain  forcing  than  towards  its  prevention. 

The  most  fundamental  mechanisms  of  the  trunk  are  those 
which  are  concerned  in  the  movements  of  respiration  and  of 
circulation.  They  are  quite  fully  organized  at  birth :  but  the 
need  for  their  exercise  ceases  only  with  the  life  of  the  organism. 
The  centres  which  represent  the  muscles  by  means  of  which 
the  trunk  is  kept  erect  and  balanced  upon  the  pelvis  are  acces- 
sory, if  compared  with  those  mentioned  above,  but  are  funda- 
mental as  compared  with  those  which  represent  the  muscles  of 
locomotion.  The  muscles  of  the  trunk  are  called  into  fuller  and 
more  frequent  play  as  soon  as  the  child  ceases  to  go  on  all-fours, 
and  it  must  then  learn,  after  a  fashion,  which  may  exigently 
demand  correction  or  further  training  later  on,  to  co-ordinate 
the  movements  of  its  limbs  with  those  of  its  trunk.  The  child 
learns  to  flex  its  thigh  upon  the  body,  the  leg  upon  the  thigh, 
and  to  elevate  the  heel  from  the  ground  considerably  earlier 
than  it  can  raise  its  toes,  so  that  the  foot  shall  swing  clear  of 
the  ground  and  it  be  enabled  to  begin  another  step.  What 
folly  it  would  be  to  try  to  teach  a  toddling  infant  to  run,  or 
jump,  or  dance! 


19 

Similarly  the  training  of  the  hand  and  fingers  should  not 
only  be  preceded,  but  accompanied  by  the  exercise  of  the  mus- 
cles of  the  forearm,  arm,  shoulder,  and  trunk.  You  shall  not 
gather  ripe  manual  cunning  from  a  limb  whose  trunk  attach- 
ments are  undersized,  untrained,  or  deformed.  This  fact  points 
to  the  danger  of  exacting  genuine  manual  training  from  young 
pupils,  especially  if  it  be  divorced  from  its  proper  adjuvant  and 
corrective  general  gymnastics.  It  is  simply  impossible  to  make 
any  technical  drill,  such  as  wood-turning,  penmanship,  singing, 
piano  exercises,  or  even  the  manual  of  arms,  meet  the  proper 
ends  of  bodily  education  either  for  children,  adolescents,  or 
adults.  Technical  training,  appealing  as  it  does  to  the  most 
accessory  mechanisms,  should  be  grounded  on  general  hygienic 
and  educational  training ;  should  not  be  pushed  at  too  early  a 
stage;  and  should  be  left,  where  it  belongs,  in  the  hands  of 
special  trainers. 

Pastimes,  out-of-door  sports,  and  systematic  gymnastics  are 
the  forms  of  exercise  which  yield  the  best  results  in  the  physi- 
cal training  of  school  children  and  college  students.  The  plays 
of  the  kindergarten,  the  athletic  sports  to  which  British  and 
American  youth  are  so  devoted,  and  the  systematic  gymnastics 
of  the  Swedes  and  Germans  have  all  developed  from  one  germ, 
from  healthful  play,  that  is ;  the  vital  energy  of  this  germ  is 
found  in  the  universal  and  ineradicable  impulse  of  all  healthy 
children  to  play.  The  children  of  every  generation,  no  matter 
how  prim,  or  sour,  or  ascetic  their  parents  may  be,  are  always 
playing  animals.  That  it  is  so  is  a  most  fortunate  thing  for  the 
race :  were  it  not  so,  the  victims  of  war,  pestilence,  and  educa- 
tion, and  of  that  voracious  monster  that  men  call  business,  would 
be  vastly  more  numerous  than  they  are. 

In  the  athletic  sports  of  young  men  we  see  the  highest  and 
fullest  expression  of  the  play  instinct.  The  essential  difference 
between  athletics  and  gymnastics  is  one  of  aim.  The  aim  of 
athletics,  unless  of  the  illegitimate  professional  sort,  is  pleasur- 
able activity  for  the  sake  of  recreation ;  that  of  gymnastics  is 
discipline  or  training  for  pleasure,  health,  and  skill.  We  have 
but  to  compare  the  aims,  methods,  and  results  of  each,  and  to 
call  to  mind  the  characteristics  of  the  nations  which  have 


20 

affected  athletics  on  the  one  hand  and  gymnastics  on  the  other, 
to  perceive  that  gymnastics  are  more  highly  developed,  and 
present  more  features  of  educational  value.  Gymnastics,  as 
compared  with  athletics,  are  more  comprehensive  in  their  aims, 
more  formal,  elaborate,  and  systematic  in  their  methods,  and  are 
productive  of  more  solid  and  considerable  results. 

I  have  no  disposition  to  disparage  athletic  sports.  I  would 
that  they  were  more  general  and  better  regulated  than  they  are 
in  our  country.  I  believe  that  they  are  valuable  as  a  means  of 
recreation;  that  they  conduce  to  bodily  growth  and  improve- 
ment ;  and  that  their  moral  effects  are  of  value,  since  they  call 
for  self-subordination,  public  spirit,  and  co-operative  effort,  and 
serve  to  reveal  the  dominant  characteristics  and  tendencies,  as 
regards  the  temper,  disposition,  and  force  of  will  of  those  who 
engage  in  them.  But  they  bear  so  indelibly  the  marks  of  their 
childish  origin,  they  are  so  crude  and  unspecialized  as  to  their 
methods,  as  to  render  them  inadequate  for  the  purposes  of  a 
thorough-going  and  broad  system  of  bodily  education.  It  is 
well  to  promote  them,  and  it  is  becoming  increasingly  necessary 
to  regulate  them  ;  but  it  is  unwise  and  short-sighted  to  consider 
them  as  constituting  anything  more  than  a  single  stage  in  the 
best  bodily  training. 

Gymnastics  have  been  most  popular  and  general  among  the 
most  highly  trained  nations,  such  as  the  Greeks  of  old  and  the 
Germans  of  to-day.  The  most  athletic,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
one  of  the  most  ill-trained  of  modern  nations,  is  the  British.  I 
mean  simply  this,  that  an  Englishman  believes,  and  acts  upon 
the  belief,  that  you  come  to  do  a  thing  right  by  doing  it,  and 
not  by  first  learning  to  do  it  right  and  then  doing  it ;  whereas, 
the  Germans  leave  little  or  nothing  to  the  rule  of  thumb,  not 
even  in  bodily  education.  German  gymnastics  embrace  three 
well-marked  fields  or  departments ;  viz.,  popular  gymnastics, 
school  gymnastics,  and  military  gymnastics.  The  organization 
of  the  last  two  departments  is  maintained  and  controlled  by 
the  government  for  strictly  educational  purposes ;  while  the 
Turnvereine,  as  the  popular  gymnastic  societies  are  called,  are 
voluntary  associations  of  a  social  and  semi-educational  but  wholly 
popular  and  patriotic  character.  The  fondness  of  the  German 


21 

people  for  gymnastics  is  as  marked  a  national  trait  as  is  the 
liking  of  the  British  for  athletic  sports.  The  German  system 
of  gymnastics  has  been  most  highly  developed  in  Prussia,  where 
not  far  from  a  fifth  of  the  population  is  undergoing  systematic 
physical  training  at  the  present  time,  under  the  combined 
agencies  of  the  schools,  the  army,  and  the  Turnvereine.  In 
Switzerland  and  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  you  will  find  school 
and  military  gymnastics,  especially  in  Sweden,  quite  as  fully  de- 
veloped as  in  Germany,  and  popular  gymnastics  not  so  much  so. 

One  of  the  main  defects  of  our  school  training  hitherto  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  lessons  and  tasks  are  set  which  involve 
the  activity  of  the  accessory  parts  of  the  nervous  system,  before 
its  fundamental  portions  have  been  properly  built  up  and  trained. 
The  result  of  this  inverted  and  unnatural  order  of  teaching  is 
seen  in  myriad  forms  of  nervous  disease  which  find  expression  in 
St.  Vitus'  dance,  grimaces,  spasms,  convulsions,  and  other  forms 
of  disordered  muscular  action,  as  well  as  in  the  protean  forms 
of  headache,  nervous  exhaustion,  and  mental  derangement,  so 
common  nowadays  amongst  sedentary  people  and  brain-workers. 
For  the  purpose  of  forestalling  such  results,  I  would  encourage 
games  for  boys  and  girls  during  their  school  life ;  and  would  require 
of  them  compulsory  attendance  upon  instruction  in  gymnastics, 
drawing  and  modelling,  and  in  the  elements  of  certain  selected 
handicrafts  for  general  educational  purposes.  Physical  training 
has  long  been  recognized  as  an  indispensable  means  for  awak- 
ening and  developing  mental  faculty  in  idiots ;  and  has  been 
employed  with  astonishing  success,  for  several  years,  in  the 
training  of  criminal  dullards  in  the  State  Reformatory  at 
Elmira,  New  York.  Did  time  permit,  it  would  be  interest- 
ing to  consider  the  methods  and  results  of  teaching  gymnastics 
to  idiots  and  criminals.  I  must  content  myself  with  referring 
you  to  the  writings  of  the  late  Dr.  Edward  Seguin,  of  New 
York,  the  reports  of  the  managers  of  the  Elmira  Reformatory, 
and  the  brochures  of  Dr.  H.  D.  Wey. 

My  plea  is,  that  inasmuch  as  physical  training  enters  of 
necessity  into  the  training  of  every  school  child,  every  appren- 
tice, every  recruit,  those  who  undertake  to  train  scholars  or 
craftsmen,  artists  or  authors,  should  see  to  it  that  mental  train- 


22 

ing  should  not  be  pursued  to  the  neglect  or  detriment  of  bodily 
training;  that  each  kind  of  training  should  be  given  its  proper 
place  in  the  compulsory  curriculum  of  our  public  schools ;  and 
that  bodily  training  should  be  given  in  appropriately  fitted 
places,  by  specially  trained  and  well-qualified  teachers,  in  a 
systematic,  well-ordered,  and  rational  way. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  paper  to  set  forth  the  les- 
sons to  be  learned  from  the  best  European  systems  of  physical 
training,  or  to  show  how  fragmentary  and  defective  our  so-called 
American  systems  have  been  and  are ;  but  I  may  remark,  in 
passing,  that  a  careful  study  of  the  German  and  Swedish  systems 
of  school  gymnastics  will  be  found  an  indispensable  preliminary 
step  for  those  who  propose  to  organize  a  natural,  rational,  safe 
and  effective  system  of  American  physical  education. 

The  price  of  wisdom  may  be  beyond  that  of  rubies ;  but  the 
price  of  health,  which  Plato  conceived  to  be  the  natural  order 
and  governance  of  one  another,  in  the  parts  of  the  body,  its 
price  is  above  that  of  either  gems  or  wisdom. 


A  paper  on  "The  German  System,"  by  Heinrich  Metzner, 
of  the  New  York  German  Turnverein,  was  read,  in  his  absence, 
by  Mr.  Carl  Eberhard,  Superintendent  of  the  Boston  Athletic 
Club  Gymnasium. 


THE   GERMAN   SYSTEM   OF   GYMNASTICS. 

BY    H.    METZNER, 

PRINCIPAL  OF  THE  SCHOOL  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  TURNVEREIN. 

THE  desire  to  improve  or  to  attain  a  higher  standard  in  cul- 
ture and  civilization,  natural  to  almost  every  human  being,  is 
the  cause  of  all  education,  its  aim  is  the  perfection  of  mankind, 
and  its  means  are  the  gradual  development  of  all  faculties,  mental 
and  physical,  by  instruction,  example,  and  exercise. 

Education  should  therefore  strive  to  avoid  a  partial  or  one- 
sided development  by  preferring  either  body  or  mind  at  the 
expense  of  the  other,  or  to  strain  any  one  faculty  to  great  pro- 
ficiency and  thus  destroy  and  disturb  the  harmonious  activity 
and  co-operation  of  both  mind  and  body. 

This  maxim,  however  old  and  often  demonstrated,  has  not  yet 
gained  that  public  recognition  which  is  necessary  to  secure  its 
practical  application  in  the  schools  of  this  country. 

As  gymnastic  exercises,  we  denote  all  bodily  exercises  and 
movements  produced  by  the  controllable  muscles  with  conscious- 
ness and  intention,  for  the  purpose  of  developing  all  bodily  facul- 
ties in  an  agreeable  manner,  and  at  the  same  time  of  bringing 
out  all  those  qualities  which  are  the  natural  result  of  health  and 
strength  ;  namely,  courage,  self-reliance,  and  joyfulness. 

A  gymnastic  system  we  may  call  the  scientific  combination 
of  the  gymnastic  exercises,  based  on  physiological  laws,  their 
classification,  and  the  instruction  of  their  practical  application. 

A  method  is  the  application  suiting  the  different  wants  as  to 
sex,  age,  bodily  condition,  and  health. 


24 

The  system  is  based  upon  the  knowledge  of  the  human  body, 
its  divers  organs,  their  relative  functions,  and  of  the  laws  of 
anatomy  and  physiology.  The  method  is  the  result  of  practical 
experience. 

The  German  system  of  gymnastics  ranks  high  among  all  the 
different  systems  known.  It  is  not  an  experience  of  late  years, 
like  so  many  others  which  have  been  put  forward  with  great 
promises  and  pretensions  by  their  inventors,  in  order  to  meet  the 
want  of  bodily  training  in  our  present  school  education,  which, 
however,  have  been  laid  aside  again  after  a  short  trial  on  account 
of  their  insufficiency.  The  German  system  has  been  diligently 
built  up  during  almost  a  century  by  men  of  science,  especially 
physicians,  physiologists,  and  pedagogues  of  high  reputation. 
It  is  in  practical  use  since  that  time,  and  is  to-day  in  vogue  in 
many  European  countries,  in  a  more  or  less  modified  form.  In 
the  army,  as  military  gymnastics ;  in  the  education  of  the  youth, 
as  school  gymnastics ;  in  the  halls  of  the  German  turners,  as 
popular  gymnastics. 

It  is  practised  in  classes  by  hundreds  at  the  same  time,  as 
well  as  by  single  individuals  as  home  exercises. 

The  German  system  embraces  all  the  different  branches  of 
gymnastics  :  exercises  with  apparatus,  light  gymnastics  or  calis- 
thenics, and  also  all  those  exercises  known  as  out-door  sports, 
as  running,  leaping,  jumping,  throwing  the  stone  and  the  use  of 
all  hand-apparatus,  as  wands,  dumb-bells,  and  clubs. 

The  German  system  has  three  marked  features  which  no 
other  system  can  claim  in  so  predominant  a  manner. 

I.  It  aims  at  general  physical  culture,  and  not  at  the  culture 
of  one  special  branch.  Therefore  it  declines  the  development 
of  a  certain  organ  or  faculty  at  the  expense  of  others.  In  re- 
gard to  this  we  may  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  all  who  have 
gone  through  a  regular  course  of  exercises  in  accord  with  this 
system  have  been  thoroughly  developed,  and  rank  as  high  in 
proficiency  as  any  person  educated  by  another  system.  The 
contests  among  the  turners  are  thus  arranged,  that  exercises  in 
all  the  different  branches  must  be  performed.  This  is  also  the 
case  when  testing  scholars  in  regard  to  their  proficiency.  The 
numbers  gained,  added  together,  decide  the  grade  of  develop- 


25 

ment.  The  strife  for  specialties  is  even  not  permitted,  and  a 
partial  or  one-sided  development  is  therefore  unknown.  Yet  this 
does  not  prevent  individual  skill  and  inclination  from  bringing 
about  a  greater  result  in  a  certain  branch ;  this  result,  however, 
is  not  gained  by  a  loss  or  lack  in  any  other  branch. 

II.  It  allows,  or   rather,  induces   the   exercises   in   classes. 
The   classes   are    selected    by   a    careful    investigation   as   to 
strength,  ability,  age,  etc.,  and  for  that  reason  it  suits  as  well 
those  who  practise  merely  for  physical  development  as  those 
who  aim  at  a  proficiency  of  a  higher  grade.     The  exercises  in 
classes  are  a  source  of  endless  pleasure,  refreshment  of  mind, 
and  joyfulness  not  only  to  children,  but  even  to  adults.     They 
are  furthermore  an  inducement  for  promotion  and  the  ambitious 
desire  to  keep  step  with  other  scholars.     They  act  as  a  stimulant 
for  greater  exertion.     It  is  an  undeniable  truth  that  all  those 
who  have  continually  practised  in  a  German  gymnasium,  or  in  a 
school  in  which  the  German  system  of  gymnastics  had  been  in- 
troduced, acknowledge  that  the  hours  spent  there  count  among 
the  happiest  of  their  childhood  or  manhood.     The  variety  and 
great  number  of  exercises  of  the  German  system  and  their 
scientific  arrangement  allow  new  and  indefinite  combinations. 
The  teacher  can  always  select  a  certain  number  of  exercises 
suitable   for  his  class  which   are  as   agreeable   as   instructive 
and  interesting  to  every  one  of  the  classmates.     Not  only  the 
body,  but  also  the  mind  is  kept  in  a  wholesome  and  refreshing 
activity  which  will  keep  away  all  weariness  and  tediousness 
which  are  so  often  found  in  other  systems.     The  class  exercises 
of  the  German  system  allow  also  the  instruction  of  a  large  num- 
ber at  the  same  time,  providing  sufficient  room  is  at  hand. 

III.  The  instruction  begins  with  the  most  simple  and  easy 
movements  and  proceeds  gradually  to  a  higher  degree.     All  fear 
of  danger  or  harm  to  the  body  is  a  priori  excluded.     The  appa- 
ratus used  in  school  practice  is  not  at  all  complicated  or  expen- 
sive.     A  number  of   climbing-poles,   ladders,  and   some   light 
apparatus   for  the   high   and  long  leap   are   sufficient.      They 
may  even  be  omitted  altogether  if  the  necessary  room  for  such 
could  not  be  provided  for.      In  this  case,  however,  we  cannot 
call  the  training  a  complete  one,  as  the  aim  of  training  is  not 


26 

only  the  achievement  of  a  development  of  muscles,  limbs,  and 
organs,  but  also  the  achievement  of  courage  and  self-reliance. 
It  is  a  fact  that  many  a  man  or  woman  could  have  avoided  dan- 
ger or  saved  their  lives  had  they  been  courageous  or  resolute 
enough  to  risk  a  leap  or  to  take  hold  of  a  ladder  in  a  moment 
of  need. 

The  great  variety  of  useful  exercises  that  may  be  made  with 
the  above-named  apparatus,  together  with  the  utilization  of  the 
almost  endless  variety  of  simple  and  complicated  free  exercises, 
with  or  without  the  common  hand-apparatus,  as  wands,  dumb- 
bells, clubs,  etc.,  which  may  be  executed  in  the  schoolroom, 
bring  about  as  satisfactory  results  as  any  other  system.  In 
addition  to  this  we  may  proudly  assert  that  its  scientific  and 
educational  value  has  met  with  approval  wherever  it  was  allowed 
a  fair  trial.  And  we  also  may  assert  that  no  other  system  has 
so  large  a  variety  of  exercises  and  combinations  as  this.  And 
for  that  reason  alone  it  is  more  qualified  for  introduction  wher- 
ever gymnastic  exercises  are  wanted,  especially  in  the  schools. 

The  German  system  is  not  in  vogue  only  in  the  halls  of  the 
turners  and  in  their  schools.  It  has  already  gained  its  ground 
in  some  of  the  colleges  and  athletic  clubs,  in  private  and  in 
public  schools,  where  teachers  educated  in  the  seminary  of  the 
North-American  Turnerbund  act  as  instructors. 

The  German  system  does  not  claim  to  have  any  special  exer- 
cise of  its  own,  or  to  be  the  sole  proprietor  of  any,  that  no  other 
system  may  also  produce ;  no.  But  it  may  properly  claim  that 
it  has  correctly  and  practically  arranged  the  gymnastic  material 
for  the  use  of  any  one  who  seeks  health,  strength,  or  refresh- 
ment of  mind  and  body. 

In  the  German  gymnasia  and  schools  the  lessons  begin  regu- 
larly with  a  series  of  free  and  order  exercises.  Every  scholar 
has  to  participate  in  them.  The  rhythmical  order  in  which  they 
are  produced  calls  forth  absolute  attention,  and  allows  no  back- 
wardness. They  impress  on  each  a  feeling  of  responsibility 
toward  his  associates.  The  mistakes  or  errors,  or  an  insufficient 
execution  of  any  one,  injures  the  good  impression  of  the  whole, 
and  thus  tends  to  greater  carefulness  and  prevents  negligence 
on  the  part  of  the  scholar. 


27 

Class  exercises  on  apparatus  follow  the  free  exercises.  A 
change  of  apparatus  takes  place,  and  then  the  lesson  ends  with 
some  exercises  left  to  individual  inclination.  The  latter,  how- 
ever, are  limited  to  a  short  time  according  to  the  ability  of  the 
scholars,  or  may  be  prohibited  altogether  to  beginners.  Thus 
under  the  eye  and  control  of  the  teacher  a  scene  of  activity  and 
liveliness  is  exhibited,  which  the  educator  will  look  upon  with 
satisfaction  and  delight. 

In  consideration  of  the  above-stated  facts  a  careful  examina- 
tion and  a  fair  trial  of  the  German  system  of  gymnastics,  free 
of  all  prejudice,  may  properly  be  demanded  when  the  question 
is  practically  to  be  decided  which  of  the  different  systems  is 
best  apt  to  be  adopted  in  the  programme  of  our  public  schools. 
The  German  system  has  not  been  influenced  by  any  other. 
Since  the  days  of  Guts-Muths,  Jahn,  and  Eiselen,  the  founders 
of  German  gymnastics,  and  Adolph  Spiess,  the  founder  of  the 
elaborate  structure  of  school  gymnastics,  it  has  had  material 
enough  to  give  freely  from  its  wealth  to  other  systems,  and  many 
of  the  latter  boast  features  of  German  origin.  May  the  decis- 
ion of  the  question  be  based  on  a  fair  and  close  examination. 
Neither  this  paper,  which  states  but  a  few  points  of  merit  of  the 
German  system,  nor  a  short  exhibition  of  exercises  by  scholars 
is  sufficient  to  show  the  educational  value  of  it. 

But  whatever  the  result  of  this  agitation  may  be,  let  us  hope 
that  wise  and  cautious  observation  and  study,  uninfluenced  by 
prejudgment  or  prejudice,  will  bring  about  the  decision. 

Allow  me  to  close  this  brief  sketch  with  the  remarks  of  Dr. 
Edward  Mussey  Hartwell  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  in  the 
"Circular  of  Information,"  written  in  1885  for  the  National 
Bureau  of  Education. 

He  writes  :  "  If  physical  training  should  ever  be  pursued  intelli- 
gently and  systematically  in  the  schools  of  any  American  state 
or  city,  many  of  the  same  problems  with  which  the  educational 
authorities  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  Sweden,  and  France  have 
been  so  deeply  engaged  inevitably  present  themselves."  I  am 
far  from  thinking  that  such  problems  can  be  satisfactorily  solved 
by  the  attempted  introduction  of  any  unmodified  foreign  system 
ef  gymnastics  or  athletics.  But  I  am  firmly  convinced  that 


28 

whoever  may  be  impelled  or  called  upon  to  attempt  to  provide 
an  adequate  remedy  for  the  present  lamentable  neglect  of  physi- 
cal training  in  American  schools  and  colleges  can  readily  save 
money,  time,  and  trouble  if  they  will  but  study  the  German 
system  of  turning ;  "  for  there  can  be  no  doubt,"  to  borrow  the 
words  of  Professor  Du  Bois-Reymond,  "that  German  turning, 
in  its  wise  mingling  of  theory  and  practice,  exhibits  the  happi- 
est, yes,  the  most  adequate  solution  of  the  great  problem  with 
which  pedagogues  have  been  busy  since  Rousseau,  —  a  truth 
which,  after  a  short  obscurity,  is  now  hardly  contested,  but  the 
physiological  principle  of  which  a  few  are  beginning  to  under- 
stand." 

DISCUSSION. 

Dr.  HARRIS.  —  The  German  movement  is  a  movement  which  looks  most 
to  the  conscious  development  of  the  muscles  through  the  will.  Over  against 
it  stands  the  English  system  of  developing  muscle  unconsciously  by  athletic 
sports.  I  suppose  we  shall  have  the  distinction  between  these  two  principles 
presented,  and  I  hope  their  claims  may  be  adjusted.  It  is  an  important  ques- 
tion to  decide  whether  we  should  make  physical  training  a  matter  of  special 
effort  of  the  will,  subordinating  the  will  of  the  pupil  to  the  will  of  the  in- 
structor, or  whether  we  shall  seek  such  physical  training  in  free  play  from 
games.  That  is  indeed  the  chief  practical  subject  that  we  have  before  us 
now.  I  suppose  that  every  one  acquainted  with  medicine  knows  that  physical 
training  by  the  exercise  of  the  will,  instead  of  re-enforcing  the  vital  processes, 
may  thwart  them  and  injure  them.  I  know  of  chronic  cases  of  dyspepsia,  for 
example,  that  have  never  been  cured  by  gymnastics ;  but  there  are  certain 
kinds  of  voluntary  and  involuntary  movements  that  certainly  help  digestion. 
It  is  known  that  horseback  riding  is  beneficial,  a  favorable  reaction  being 
caused  by  the  jolting  movement  of  the  horse.  This  is  supposed  to  be  espe- 
cially a  kind  of  exercise  that  helps  the  healthy  action  of  vital  organs.  Some 
have  contended  that  it  is  the  best  exercise  for  consumptive  people.  I  call 
attention  to  this,  not  to  indorse  the  theory,  but  to  indicate  one  of  the  trends 
which  I  hope  the  debate  will  take.  I  call  first  on  Dr.  Hall  of  Baltimore. 

Dr.  Hall  begged  to  be  excused  till  after  the  paper  on  the 
Swedish  system  should  be  read,  as  that  was  the  system  in  use 
in  Baltimore. 

The  president  called  on  Mr.  E.  P.  Seaver,  superintendent  of 
schools  in  Boston. 

Mr.  SEAVER.  —  I  came  here  to  learn.  I  freely  confess  that  I  know  very 
little  about  this  subject,  and  it  would  be  a  piece  of  presumption  on  my  part 


29 

to  occupy  the  time.  I  will  make  one  request,  however,  for  further  light. 
Dr.  Hartwell,  in  his  very  interesting  paper,  quoted  some  well-known  medical 
writers,  and  he  mentioned  one  book  from  which,  if  I  understood  him  aright, 
something  might  be  learned  about  the  proper  classification  of  the  nerve- 
centres  and  about  the  proper  kinds  of  exercise  to  be  applied  to  bring  these 
centres  into  full  development  and  activity.  My  hope  was  that  before  that 
paper  was  concluded  we  should  have  from  him  a  little  information  as  to  the 
literature  on  the  subject,  so  that  laymen  like  myself  and  pedagogues  like 
myself  might  be  able  to  make  up  the  deficiencies  of  our  knowledge  by  reading 
as  well  as  by  listening  to  papers. 

Dr.  HARTWELL.  —  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  literature  in  English  upon 
systematic  physical  education  is  not  very  voluminous  or  satisfactory.  The 
German  and  Swedish  systems,  although  springing  out  of  the  exercises  of 
the  Turnvereins,  have  been  moulded  and  built  up  as  the  result  of  a  good  deal 
of  thought  and  effort  on  the  part  of  educators  and  scientific  men.  The 
German  system  owed  its  start  as  popular  gymnastics  chiefly  to  the  work  of 
"  Father  Jahn,"  as  he  was  called.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  using  physical 
training  as  a  means  of  bettering  the  youth  of  the  nation,  and  making  them 
strong,  courageous,  and  able  defenders  of  their  country  at  the  time  of  Prussia's 
deepest  humiliation  and  trial.  Before  Jahn  came  Guts-Muths,  who,  enamoured 
of  the  Greek  gymnastics,  began  writing  about  gymnastics  for  schools  about 
a  hundred  years  ago.  He  taught  gymnastics  for  many  years  in  Salzmann's 
Philanthropium  in  Schepfenthal. 

But  the  gymnastic  movement  under  Jahn  was  at  first  of  a  political  rather 
than  of  a  pedagogical  character;  and  when  the  war  of  liberation  came  in 
1813,  the  Turners  were  found,  almost  to  a  man,  in  the  ranks  of  those  who 
broke  the  Napoleonic  yoke.  That  gave  great  popularity  to  the  exercises,  and 
paved  the  way  for  school  gymnastics.  The  ideas  and  methods  of  Jahn  still 
survive  in  many  of  the  exercises  used  by  popular  societies  known  as  Turn- 
vereine.  The  consolidated  Turnvereine  constitute  the  organization  known 
as  the  Deutsche  Turnerschaft,  which  numbers  between  four  and  five  thousand 
gymnastic  societies  in  Germany  and  Austria,  and  has  a  membership  of  nearly 
four  hundred  thousand.  The  principle  of  the  Jahn  Turning  was  the  doing 
the  best  one  can  according  to  bodily  ability,  under  the  lead  of  a  more 
accomplished  gymnast  called  a  "  Vorturner."  It  became  necessary,  later,  to 
modify  the  methods  of  popular  gymnastics  in  order  to  meet  the  more  formal 
methods  of  school  training.  That  was  accomplished  chiefly  by  Adolph  Spiess, 
who  was,  like  Jahn,  a  school  teacher,  but,  unlike  Jahn,  not  a  popular  agitator. 
Spiess  wrote  an  elaborate  book  on  the  subject  of  school  gymnastics.  Jahn's 
book,  or  a  portion  of  it,  was  translated  into  English  by  Dr.  Beck,  one  of  his 
pupils.  This  translation  was  published  about  1828,  in  Northampton,  Mass., 
when  Dr.  Beck  was  a  teacher  in  the  famous  Round  Hill  School.  Most  of  the 
German  literature  on  this  subject  has  not  been  translated.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  the  Swedish  literature.  There  are  books  enough  on  all  branches 
of  gymnastics  in  both  of  those  languages,  and  in  each  of  them  you  may  find 
periodicals  devoted  to  the  interests  of  school  gymnastics. 


30 

The  physiological  effects  of  exercise  to  which  I  have  referred  with  most 
emphasis  in  my  paper,  are  generally  not  touched  upon  in  the  hand-books  put 
into  the  hands  of  medical  students  and  the  teachers  of  Turning,  whether  those 
hand-books  be  printed  in  German,  Swedish,  or  English.  It  is  only  in  the 
scattered  writings  of  specialists  that  you  will  find  anything  approaching  to 
an  adequate  exposition  of  the  effects  of  muscular  exercise  upon  the  nervous 
system.  In  Ross's  "  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System  "  the  difference  between 
the  fundamental  and  accessory  parts  of  the  nervous  system  is  clearly  set  forth, 
and  the  proper  order  to  be  followed  in  their  training  is  alluded  to.  In  "The 
Book  of  Health,"  edited  by  Malcom  Morris,  and  published  by  Cassell  &  Com- 
pany, you  will  find  a  valuable  and  original  article  by  Dr.  J.  Crich ton-Browne 
on  "The  Nervous  System  in  its  Relation  to  Education."  The  best  general 
exposition  of  the  whole  subject  is  that  given  by  Professor  Du  Bois-Reymond 
of  the  University  of  Berlin,  in  his  "  Physiology  of  Exercise,"  which  appeared 
three  or  four  years  ago,  in  translated  form,  in  the  "  Popular  Science  Monthly." 
But  the  criticism  of  gymnastic  methods,  German  and  Swedish,  in  just  the 
light  I  have  presented  this  morning,  I  do  not  think  is  to  be  found  in  any  of 
the  ordinary  books.  Certainly  it  is  not  in  Maclaren's  "Training  in  Theory 
and  Practice,"  or  the  ordinary  American  and  English  text-books  on  physiology. 

A  good  deal  more  than  is  given  in  Mr.  Metzner's  paper  could  be  brought 
out  in  regard  to  the  German  system.  The  first  attempt  to  introduce  gymnas- 
tic training  into  this  country  was  made  by  Dr.  Beck  and  Dr.  Follen,  who  had 
been  friends  and  pupils  of  Jahn.  The  attempt  was  made  in  1825,  at  the 
Round  Hill  School  at  Northampton,  where  Beck  and  Follen  were  teachers. 
But  the  inducements  for  them  to  become  professors  at  Harvard  College  were 
greater  than  to  engage  in  any  crusade  for  gymnastics.  Gymnastic  apparatus 
of  the  German  sort  was  put  up  on  various  college  greens,  and  there  was  an 
enthusiastic  outburst  in  schools  and  academies  in  favor  of  physical  training. 
The  interest  was  but  superficial  and  shortlived.  When  the  machines  grew 
old  or  became  warped  by  exposure  to  the  weather,  they  were  not  renewed, 
and  the  interest  died  out.  There  were  some  doctors  in  Boston  then  who 
exerted  themselves  in  behalf  of  gymnastic  training.  Dr.  John  C.  Warren  was 
the  President  of  the  Tremont  Gymnasium,  the  first  gymnasium  of  any  size 
started  in  this  country.  That  was  in  1826,  I  believe.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  they  made  an  attempt  to  get  Jahn  to  come  over  and  take  charge  of 
it.  He  was  then  in  exile  from  the  capital,  and  in  political  disgrace.  Failing 
to  secure  him,  they  did  secure  Dr.  Francis  Lieber,  the  jurist  and  publicist  of 
later  days,  who  came  to  this  country  to  teach  swimming  and  gymnastics  here 
in  Boston.  He  took  charge  of  the  Tremont  Gymnasium  for  awhile  ;  but  that 
gymnasium  finally  died  a  natural  death,  and  Dr.  Lieber's  fame  rests  in  his 
career  as  a  publicist,  not  as  a  gymnasiarch.  A  large  number  of  gentlemen, 
however,  experienced  benefit  from  that  gymnasium,  —  men  like  Dr.  Francis 
Gardner,  Dr.  John  P.  Reynolds,  and  others.  It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that 
Father  Jahn's  son  has  lived  for  many  years  in  Baltimore,  and  that  the  son  of 
the  latter  is  now  one  of  the  special  teachers  of  gymnastics  in  the  Chicago 


31 

public  schools.  The  grandson  was  adopted  by  the  North-American  Turner- 
bund,  and  very  largely  educated  at  its  expense. 

A  dozen  years  or  so  ago  efforts  were  made  to  provide  physical  training  for 
the  boys  in  the  Boston  Latin  School.  Doubtless  these  efforts  were  due,  in  a 
measure,  to  the  influence  of  the  Tremont  Gymnasium. 

Then,  just  before  the  war,  came  Dio  Lewis,  who  adopted  a  part  of  the 
German  system,  and  invented  bean-bags  and  rings,  and  substituted  wooden 
dumb-bells  for  iron  in  class  exercises.  A  part  of  his  outfit  was  an  iron  crown 
for  the  head,  which  was  decorated  with  the  stars  and  stripes.  He  had  a 
school  of  gymnastics,  which  lived  at  Lexington  for  a  few  years.  I  remember 
that  Superintendent  Philbrick  said  of  the  Lewis  gymnastics,  "  the  problem  is 
now  solved ;  here  are  exercises  that  can  be  used  in  the  school-room  without 
fixed  apparatus."  But  it  did  not  turn  out  so.  I  do  not  believe  that  you  can 
introduce  fully  or  satisfactorily  either  the  German  or  Swedish  systems  of 
training,  unless  you  have  buildings  or  rooms  fitted  and  furnished  to  meet 
their  requirements.  You  may  introduce  free  movements,  such  as  we  shall  see 
here,  which  can  be  performed  in  the  class-rooms,  and  you  may  accomplish 
great  good  with  them.  Such  a  movement,  to  do  this,  has  gained  already 
considerable  headway  in  other  parts  of  this  country. 

American  educators  have  given  so  little  attention  to  German  gymnastics 
that  I  hope  I  may  be  pardoned  for  relating  a  personal  experience  here.  Some 
years  ago  I  had  occasion  to  prepare  a  report  for  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education  on  this  matter  of  physical  training.  In  getting  material  together,  I 
visited  all  the  principal  college  and  Christian  Association  and  other  gymna- 
siums of  the  country.  This  brought  me  into  many  different  cities.  I  had, 
too,  at  my  disposal  all  the  literature  in  the  library  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  in  Washington ;  but  I  did  not  anywhere  come  across  any  allusion 
to  the  German  system  of  Turning  as  it  exists  here,  and  has  existed  since  1848. 
No  one  even  suggested  a  visit  to  a  Turnhalle.  It  was  only  after  I  went  to 
Germany,  when  I  had  completed  my  report,  that  I  learned  what  the  German- 
American  Turners  were  doing,  and  what  they  had  done.  I  was,  fortunately, 
enabled  to  revise  my  report  before  it  was  printed.  It  is  worth  while  to  re- 
member, in  undertaking  to  do  anything  toward  organizing  the  introduction  of 
gymnastics  into  schools,  that  the  German  Turners  in  this  country  have  main- 
tained for  many  years  a  school  for  the  teaching  of  teachers.  The  North- 
American  Turnerbund,  which  numbers  more  than  thirty  thousand  members, 
owns  property  free  from  debt  worth  more  than  $2,000,000,  including  one 
hundred  and  sixty  gymnasium  halls,  and  libraries  aggregating  fifty-three  thou- 
sand volumes.  It  has  one  hundred  and  forty  teachers,  who  have  graduated 
from  its  Normal  Seminary,  at  the  end  of  a  well-considered  course  of  training. 
The  gentleman  whose  paper  you  have  heard  read,  Mr.  Metzner,  and  the  gen- 
tleman who  read  it,  Mr.  Eberhard,  and  Mr.  Groener,  the  teacher  of  the 
Boston  Turn  Schule,  are  graduates  of  that  seminary.  There  are  some  fifteen 
thousand  boys  and  six  thousand  girls  in  the  Turn  Schules  of  the  North- 
American  Gymnastic  Association,  who  are  regularly  taught  gymnastics  by 


32 

approved  German  methods.  This  teaching  goes  on  every  week  in  New  York, 
Boston,  Milwaukee,  St.  Louis,  and  other  cities,  but  so  quietly  that  most 
educators  pay  little  attention  to  it.  I  hold  that  the  best-trained  body  of 
gymnastic  teachers  in  this  country,  not  excepting  those  engaged  in  our  col- 
leges, are  those  trained  and  maintained  by  the  Turnerbund.  The  Turnerbund 
was  founded  by  exiles  from  Germany.  Their  aims  are  not  only  those  of 
which  we  have  heard,  but  one  of  their  aims  is  to  discuss  political,  social, 
aesthetic,  and  ethical  questions.  For  instance,  the  New  York  Turnverein 
maintains  classes  in  drawing  and  modelling,  and  it  also  has  a  theatre,  which 
its  theatrical  club  and  singing  society  use  for  their  special  purposes,  and 
schools  where  upwards  of  nine  hundred  children  are  taught  the  German  lan- 
guage and  literature  on  certain  days,  and  on  other  days  have  gymnastic  and 
domestic  training.  The  same  Verein  also  has  a  cadet  battalion  of  ninety 
boys,  who  are  trained  in  target-shooting,  as  well  as  in  the  manual  of  arms. 
More  than  this,  since  1885,  the  German  system  of  gymnastics,  as  represented 
by  the  free  movements,  which  are  simple  movements  without  apparatus,  or 
light  gymnastics  in  which  hand-apparatus,  such  as  wands,  rings,  and  dumb- 
bells, are  employed,  has  made  great  progress  in  certain  sections  of  our 
country.  As  a  general  thing,  special  gymnasiums  have  not  been  provided. 
The  exercises  are  performed  in  the  class-rooms.  But  it  cannot  be  said  that 
the  system  has  been  introduced  as  a  whole.  Neither  it  nor  the  Ling  system 
can  be  fully  adopted  until  specially  fitted  gymnasiums  are  provided.  But  in 
the  courts  of  the  school  buildings,  in  the  halls  and  school-rooms,  free  and 
light  gymnastics  have  been  introduced  in  the  cities  of  Chicago,  Kansas 
City,  Milwaukee,  Pittsburgh,  Denver,  Louisville,  Keokuk,  St.  Joseph,  Rock 
Island,  Davenport,  and  in  other  Western  cities.  They  have  also  been  intro- 
duced, to  some  degree,  I  am  told,  into  the  schools  of  Holyoke,  of  this  state, 
and  of  Orange,  NJ.  The  school  population  of  the  towns  and  cities  where 
this  sort  of  gymnastics  is  in  successful  working  I  estimate  to  be  about  four 
hundred  thousand.  In  Chicago  they  have  fourteen  special  teachers  who  teach 
gymnastics,  at  salaries  ranging  from  $750  to  $1800.  In  many  of  the  other 
cities  instruction  is  given  by  a  director  of  gymnastics  to  the  ordinary  teachers, 
who  in  turn  instruct  their  scholars.  Gymnastic  exercise  is  obligatory  in  the 
schools  of  all  grades  in  Kansas  City  and  in  Chicago.  I  had,  not  long  ago,  a 
letter  from  the  chairman  of  the  committee  on  physical  culture  in  Chicago 
schools,  saying  that  the  system  worked  admirably,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  Board,  the  teachers,  and  the  pupils  alike. 

Dr.  HITCHCOCK.  —  I  want  Dr.  Hartwell  to  answer  the  question  as  to  the 
literature  accessible  on  this  subject,  better  than  he  has  done.  He  was  always 
a  good  boy  in  college,  and  I  do  not  want  to  see  him  floored  now. 

Dr.  HARTWELL.  —  If  Superintendent  Seaver  will  repeat  his  question,  I  will 
try  to  answer  it. 

Mr.  SEAVER.  —  I  was  quite  well  satisfied  with  Mr.  Hartwell's  answer.  It 
is  always  interesting  to  hear  a  man  talk  who  is  full  of  his  subject.  What  I 
wanted  specially  to  know  was,  what  books  there  are  from  which  one  can  get 


33 

a  criticism  or  critical  estimate  of  these  different  systems  of  gymnastics,  having 
in  view  this  classification  of  the  nerve  centres  into  fundamental  and  accessory, 
so  that  we  may  reach  a  more  clear  conclusion  as  to  which  is  the  better  system. 

Dr.  HARTWELL.  —  I  do  not  know  of  any.  Very  much  of  what  I  said  was 
gathered  from  many  quarters,  from  monographs  and  special  works  brought 
together  by  myself. 

Mr.  SEAVER.  —  Then  Dr.  Hartwell  will  have  to  write  such  a  book  himself. 

Mr.  DUNTON  of  the  Normal  School.  —  To  what  extent  are  gymnastics  in 
the  common  schools  in  Germany  taught  by  the  regular  teachers,  and  to  what 
extent  have  they  special  teachers  for  this  department?  If  we  had  proper 
rooms  and  proper  apparatus,  would  it  be  practicable  for  the  regular  teachers 
to  conduct  the  exercises? 

Dr.  HARTWELL.  —  German  schools  are  divided  into  two  classes.  The 
higher  sort  leads  to  the  University  in  the  Technical  School;  they  are  the 
Gymnasien  and  the  Real-Schulen.  Most  of  these  have  special  teachers  of 
Turning,  who  have  received  their  training  at  a  normal  school  for  training 
teachers  of  gymnastics.  There  are  such  normal  schools  in  all  such  capitals 
as  Berlin,  Dresden,  Munich,  and  Stuttgart.  In  the  lower,  or  primary  schools, 
—  the  Volks-Schulen,  —  it  is  a  more  common  practice  for  the  pupils  to  be 
taught  gymnastics  by  the  ordinary  class  teachers.  But  these  teachers  have 
to  learn  to  teach  gymnastics  in  the  normal  schools  where  they  obtain  their 
professional  training.  The  same  holds  good  with  regard  to  the  Swedish 
schools.  The  higher  schools  for  boys  correspond  to  the  German  Gymnasien 
or  Real-Schulen.  In  them  special  teachers  are  installed.  The  number  of 
teachers  in  schools  of  this  grade  is,  I  think,  about  thirteen  hundred  men ; 
but  of  this  number  ninety-five  are  specially  trained  and  fully  installed  teachers  of 
gymnastics.  In  the  lower,  primary  schools,  corresponding  to  the  Volk-Schulen, 
the  teaching  is  carried  on  by  the  teachers  themselves,  who,  like  those  in 
Germany,  have  had  instruction  in  teaching  gymnastics  in  the  normal  schools. 

Dr.  John  P.  Reynolds  was  asked  to  speak. 

Dr.  REYNOLDS.  —  I  ought  not  to  speak  upon  this  subject.  I  am  too 
little  familiar  with  its  details.  But  my  interest  in  every  branch  of  it  is  very 
warm.  Perhaps  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  a  word  about  gymnastics  in  Ger- 
many, as  they  come  to  the  knowledge  of  a  traveller  in  that  country.  In 
Germany,  education  of  the  body,  no  less  than  of  the  mind,  is  compulsory  for 
every  man-child,  from  the  son  of  the  sovereign  to  the  son  of  the  day-laborer. 
He  must  be  trained  in  walking,  in  running,  in  leaping,  and  in  a  host  of  other 
bodily  exercises.  With  us,  the  great  obstacle  to  all  this  is,  that  we  cannot 
bring  the  community,  and  especially  teachers,  to  recognize  the  immense  im- 
portance of  such  instruction.  Teachers  largely  make  up  this  assembly.  Even 
if  I  appear  to  any  of  them  an  unfriendly  critic,  I  deeply  appreciate  the  attain- 
ments and  the  worth  of  the  instructors  of  the  Boston  schools,  and  I  hold 
their  calling  in  the  most  sincere  admiration. 

Nearly  twenty  years  ago,  several  members  of  the  School  Board,  eager  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  Latin  School,  attempted,  among  other  changes, 


34 

to  introduce  there,  in  a  very  tentative  way,  the  teaching  of  gymnastics,  hoping 
thus  to  make  an  entering  wedge  for  its  general  recognition  in  the  public 
schools.  A  young  instructor,  rarely  qualified,  was  found.  It  would  have 
done  your  hearts  good  to  see  the  spirit  with  which  the  boys  took  hold  of  the 
work.  Those  of  you  who  have  this  forenoon  listened  to  the  representative  of 
gymnastics  at  the  Johns  Hopkins,  will  know  what  a  magnificent  teacher  the 
Latin  School  had  secured.  But  in  a  year  or  two  the  Latin  School  gymnastics 
came  to  an  end  ;  and  from  that  date,  if  we  except  the  excellent  light  work  of 
Professor  Monroe,  which  shortly  after  his  death  ceased,  bodily  culture  has 
found  no  place  in  our  schools.  Yet  through  all  those  years,  German  boys,  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  have  had,  every  one  of  them,  unceasing  care  that 
their  bodies  be  made  supple,  hardy,  and  strong.  In  that  same  period  nearly 
a  million  children  have  passed  through  the  Boston  schools.  Had  our  chil- 
dren no  equal  right  to  this  priceless  help  ?  I  will  not  say  who  robbed  us  of 
Mr.  Hartwell.  No  interest  in  gymnastics  existed.  Nobody  had  leisure  to 
take  in  the  need  of  watching  and  strengthening  the  body.  Instructors  needed 
the  whole  time  for  Greek,  for  Latin,  and  for  Mathematics.  School  hours 
were  too  crowded  to  admit  gymnastics.  Taxpayers  were  reported  to  hold 
such  exercise  an  idle  luxury.  Not  many  years  since  the  teachers  of  Southern 
Germany  made  just  these  objections.  There,  too,  the  schools  could  spare  no 
time  for  training  the  bodies  of  the  boys.  But  the  new  German  Empire  gave 
no  quarter,  and  by  its  answer,  "  You  shall,"  at  once  silenced  all  resistance.  A 
despotic,  tyrannical  authority  might  secure  this  exercise  for  every  Boston  boy 
and  girl.  I  have  no  belief  that  anything  else  ever  will. 

Travelling  in  Germany  many  years  ago,  I  had  the  privilege  of  entering 
various  German  schools,  and  one  day  watched  with  interest  an  hour  of  gym- 
nastics at  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  That  school  took  especial  pride  in  its 
teacher,  another  Hartwell  in  build,  fresh  from  his  normal  training  in  Berlin. 
It  was  a  rare  pleasure  to  see  him  give  his  first  lesson.  A  small,  bare  yard 
and  a  most  unpretending  shed,  with  simple  apparatus,  made  up  his  resources. 
In  the  yard  the  older  boys,  of  seventeen  and  eighteen,  were  soon  leaping, 
after  a  short,  quick  run,  from  a  spring  board,  over  a  high  horse  ;  while  in  the 
shed  the  younger  fellows,  divided  into  small  squads,  were  rapidly  set  at  work 
at  one  piece  or  another,  —  the  first  boy  directed  by  the  teacher,  and  then  in 
his  turn  leading  his  comrades,  —  going  over  the  horses,  shooting  the  bars, 
trying  all  the  feats  that  we  so  long  to  see  grown  common  with  us. 

It  has  been  found  no  light  matter  to  bring  home  to  those  with  whom  the 
decision  rests  the  inestimable  value  of  training  like  this. 

Only  one  other  word :  Some  one  intends  shortly  to  exhibit,  as  an  object- 
lesson,  the  exercise  of  the  boys  that  occupy  those  front  seats.  Gymnastics  in 
a  room  hot  as  is  this  seem  to  me  unreasonable.  Gymnastic  exercise  in  air 
above  fifty  (Fahr.)  degrees  ought  to  be  held  a  piece  of  barbarism. 

A  class  exercise  was  then  given  by  about  twenty  boys,  under 
the  direction  of  Emil  Groner,  of  the  Boston  German  Turnverein. 


35 


The  following  paper  was  then  read  :  — 

THE   PLACE   OF   PHYSICAL   TRAINING   IN   A 
RATIONAL   EDUCATION. 

BY  CLAES  J.    ENEBUSKE,   PH.D. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES,  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  Inasmuch  as 
you  are  certain  to  find  it  out  before  I  have  proceeded  very  far, 
I  think  it  better  to  make  a  clean  breast  of  it  at  the  outset  and 
own  right  up  that  I  am  not  an  American.  For  that  reason  I 
am  not  a  master  of  the  English  language.  I  must  ask  you  to 
bear  with  the  eccentricities  of  speech  to  which  I  am  a  victim, 
and  as  far  as  possible  let  my  good  intentions  offset  my  bad  pro- 
nunciation. 

As  I  look  about  me  at  this  large  gathering  of  distinguished 
people,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  reflect  that  we  are  assembled  here  in 
the  interest  of  humanity.  We  have  come  from  widely  separated 
homes  to  mingle  ideas,  to  express  opinions,  to  weigh  arguments, 
and  out  of  the  confusion  to  mould  a  system  which  shall  make 
posterity  our  grateful  debtors.  We  come,  each  of  us,  with  con- 
clusions founded  upon  careful  study,  but  we  should  be  willing 
to  sacrifice  them  to  the  great  common  cause  for  which  we  labor, 
anxious  only  for  the  success  of  the  best,  eager  to  be  convinced 
for  the  general  good. 

The  subject  of  physical  culture,  the  great  question  for  which 
we  are  laboring  to  formulate  an  answer,  is  by  no  means  a 
modern  one.  It  has  grown  old  with  the  world.  Ages  ago 
this  same  question  demanded  the  attention  of  scholars.  Every 
succeeding  age  has  given  its  answer,  and  those  answers  have 
varied  as  the  experience  and  temperament  of  the  ages  have 
undergone  change.  And  now,  aided  by  the  thought  and  guided 
by  the  experience  of  the  ages  that  have  gone,  it  is  our  duty  to 
find  an  answer  that  shall  be  compatible  and  in  keeping  with 
the  advanced  thought  and  enriched  experience  of  our  own. 


36 

The  questions  presented  in  the  recent  report  of  the  Board 
of  Supervisors  on  physical  training  in  the  public  schools  aim 
to  embrace  the  essential  requirements  which  a  system  of  physi- 
cal culture  must  meet.  Allow  me  to  repeat  the  first  and  most 
important  of  these  questions.  It  is  this  :  "  Is  it  the  purpose  of 
the  system  to  develop  the  whole  body  and  its  parts  symmetri- 
\  cally  and  harmoniously ;  to  preserve,  increase,  or  produce  bodily 
health,  strength,  and  proportion ;  and  to  maintain  and  promote 
physical  activity,  dexterity,  and  efficiency  ? " 

Let  us  who  attempt  to  answer  it  consider  well  the  responsi- 
bility. It  is  a  question  suggested  by  important  and  urgent 
reasons.  It  is  broad  and  complicated,  and  of  vast  importance 
must  the  answer  be. 

The  question  as  presented  seems  to  be  a  compilation  of  three 
requirements,  which  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to  mention  sepa- 
rately. It  requires  first  that  physical  training  should  develop 
the  parts  symmetrically  and  in  good  proportion  and  the  whole 
body  harmoniously.  These  words  suggest  to  us  the  conception 
of  the  classic  Greeks.  Beauty  and  harmony  was  the  aim  of 
the  Bodily  exercise  of  their  age.  Secondly,  it  demands  that 
training  should  produce  bodily  strength  and  promote  physical 
activity,  dexterity,  and  efficiency.  These  words  bring  us  face 
to  face  with  the  Roman  conception  of  the  object  of  physical 
culture.  Finally,  we  read  that  physical  education  should  pro- 
duce or  increase  bodily  health.  This  brings  us  nearer  to  our 
own  age,  and  expresses  the  true  conception  of  the  aim  of  physi- 
cal education  in  the  present  century  and  in  this  country. 

The  combined  question  represents  the  best  thought  of  three 

distinct   ages  and  of  three  distinct  peoples.     It  combines  the 

/thought  and  aim  of  ancient,  literary,  beauty-loving  Hellas,  of 

!  powerful,  disciplinary,  purpose-strong   Rome,  and    of   modern, 

.intelligent,  energetic  America. 

A  system  that  shall  answer  this  question,  that  shall  meet 
these  requirements,  must  be  one,  that  shall  satisfy  at  once  the 
demands  of  three  distinct  ages,  of  three  distinct  classes  of  men, 
equal  perhaps  to  each  other,  but  in  their  characteristics  widely 
different,  —  art-loving  Hellas,  war-loving  Rome,  and  peace-lov- 
ing United  States.  Would  such  a  system,  or  rather  would 


37 

such  a  lack  of  system,  be  wise  ?  Would  it  be  satisfactory  ?  It 
would  be  a  compilation  of  thought,  an  aggregate  of  ideas,  but 
could  there  be  any  unity  of  comprehension  ? 

In  this  one  sentence,  which  aims  to  define  the  true  object  of 
physical  culture  in  schools,  there  lies  hidden  a  dualism  that  will 
prove  prolific  of  controversy.  There  are  in  it  sources  of  end- 
less conflicts,  conflicts  over  essentials  and  over  trifles,  until  that 
formula  is  found  which  shall  express  the  fundamental  idea, 
about  which  the  others  shall  cluster  in  organic  union  and 
harmony. 

If  we  shall  still  further  dissect  this  question,  we  shall  find 
new  difficulties  arise  as  we  proceed.  We  read  physical  culture 
should  produce  symmetry  and  harmony.  To  whom  shall  we 
turn  as  the  authority  upon  symmetry  and  harmony  ?  We  seek 
the  artist.  We  ask  him  to  produce  symmetry  and  harmony  in 
our  boys  and  girls ;  but  his  skill  is  with  chisel  and  marble,  not 
with  the  crude  material  of  untrained  human  frames.  We  turn 
to  our  friend  the  anthropometrist.  He  has  figures  to  express 
the  proportions  of  the  average  man ;  but  of  symmetry  he  knows 
no  more  than  ourselves,  and  into  the  domain  of  harmony  he 
can  go  no  further  than  his  conception  of  art  leads  him.  Will 
his  rod  and  caliper  fulfil  the  requirements  that  our  purpose 
aims  to  achieve  ?  The  question  demands  of  us  bodily  health, 
and  we  turn  to  the  physician.  And  of  whom  shall  we  procure 
our  conception  of  activity  ?  Perhaps  from  the  business  man  or 
the  race  trainer.  Dexterity  is  demanded  —  we  must  call  upon 
the  artisan.  Efficiency  is  sought.  Let  us  not  slight  the  mili- 
tary man,  although  the  question  makes  no  requirement  of  the 
important  qualifications  of  discipline.  Strength  is  an  element 
demanding  attention,  and  the  athlete  puts  forth  his  claims.  But 
who  is  the  man,  who  unites  in  himself  the  capacities  of  the 
artist,  the  anthropometrist,  the  physician,  the  athlete,  the  busi- 
ness man,  the  artisan,  the  soldier  ?  Who  is  he  that  comprises 
within  his  person  the  qualities  enumerated,  and  these  in  suitable 
proportion  ? 

I  have  suggested  that  the  question,  because  of  its  lack  of 
unity  in  the  definition  of  physical  training,  will  give  rise  to 
diversities.  These  diversities  must  be  the  cause  of  needless 


38 

delay  in  the  distribution  of  the  benefits  of  physical  training  to 
the  pupils  of  the  public  schools.  For  the  purpose  of  averting 
this  danger  and  dissolving  these  diversities  —  for  the  purpose  of 
unity  —  it  is  imperative  that  we  find  a  definition  that,  while  it 
embraces  all  the  demands  enumerated,  at  once  regulates  their 
mutual  relation  of  co-ordination  and  subordination,  and  brings 
them  in  sympathy  and  harmony  beneath  the  sceptre  of  a  single 
governing  central  idea. 

Who  is  the  suitable  person  to  whom  we  can  submit  our  ideas  ? 
Who  is  clearly  the  best  judge  of  the  proper  aim  of  physical 
training  in  schools  ?  I  will  name  him  :  The  physical  educator. 
And  where  shall  we  turn  to  find  a  suitable  answer  to  our  ques- 
tion ?  I  respectfully  submit  to  you  that  Sweden  has  given  us  a 
definition  of  the  object  of  physical  training  in  schools,  which,  I 
believe,  embraces  better  than  any  other,  the  requirements  de- 
manded in  the  report  of  the  supervisors.  With  your  kind  per- 
mission, I  will  repeat  that  definition.  It  is  this:  "The  object 
of  educational  gymnastics  is  to  train  the  pupil  to  make  his  body 
subservient  to  his  own  will." 

A  system  of  physical  culture  which  shall  make  the  body  sub- 
servient to  the  will,  must  necessarily  be  one  that  shall  produce, 
increase,  and  maintain  health,  strength,  activity,  dexterity,  and 
efficiency.  These  are  all  conditions  demanded  by  the  will. 
And  it  must  necessarily  follow  that,  where  health,  strength, 
activity,  dexterity,  and  efficiency  are  found,  there  symmetry  and 
proportion  will  be  also.  Inasmuch,  then,  as  this  definition 
seems  to  meet  the  requirements  which  experience  and  necessity 
demand,  I  suggest  that  the  idea  of  Sweden  be  adopted  as  ex- 
pressing the  best  conception  of  the  object  of  physical  training. 
About  this  idea  the  thoughts  of  ancient  Greece,  of  Rome,  and 
of  modern  America  group  themselves  in  perfect  sympathy  and 
harmony. 

But  this  idea  must  not  be  understood  as  identical  with  and 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  idea  of  the  mediaeval  age. 
This  also  contemplated  the  necessity  of  bringing  the  body  under 
the  subjection  of  the  will.  But  it  was  not  a  lawful  subjection  ;  it 
was  the  tyranny  of  mind  over  the  body,  — the  mind  a  despot,  the 
body  a  serf. 


39 

The  Swedish  definition  implies  the  modern  conception  of  a 
harmonious  relation  of  body  to  mind.  It  means  the  complete 
but  the  joyful  submission  of  the  functions  and  activities  of  the 
body  to  the  dictates  of  the  will.  Such  a  harmonious  submission 
of  the  body  to  the  will  is  but  another  expression  for  health, 
though  it  is  broader  in  its  scope,  more  comprehensive,  and  above 
all  it  is  the  most  siiggestive  to  the  physical  educator.  It  will  pre- 
vent his  placing  strength  as  the  paramount  aim  of  the  physical 
training.  At  every  turn  the  question  confronts  him  :  Is  there 
a  distinct,  unchangeable,  necessary  relation  between  strength 
and  health,  between  strength  and  the  body's  harmony  with  will  ? 
It  must  teach  the  educator  that  the  true  aim  is  to  clothe  the 
healthy  frame  with  honest  muscles  which  shall  act  as  faithful 
and  efficient  servants  of  the  will.  This  is  the  true  province  of 
the  system  of  physical  training  for  our  schools. 

As  far  as  the  problem  of  health  enters  into  the  object  of 
physical  training,  the  educator  must  make  his  work  the  training 
of  scholars,  not  the  treatment  of  patients.  The  average  boy 
and  girl  are  not  patients  nor  invalids,  albeit  they  are  the  children 
of  a  nervous  age.  The  demand  for  proportion  and  harmony  of 
the  body  must  be  subjected  to  the  same  reasonable  test,  and, 
while  he  fully  recognizes  the  importance  of  keeping  his  pupils 
within  the  limits  of  proportion,  that  gives  evidence  of  health, 
yet  he  will  not  attempt  to  change  nature's  own  plan  of  physical 
individuality.  He  will  not  deem  it  his  aim  to  find  in  mankind 
a  distinct,  never-varying  relation  between  bodily  proportion  and 
health.  He  will  not  be  ruled  by  the  prejudice  that  the  indi- 
vidual is  worthier  as  he  more  nearly  approaches  the  scheduled 
proportions  of  the  average  man.  He  will  demand  the  proof,  as 
yet  unprovided,  that  the  individual  who  conforms  to  the  geometric 
symbol  of  the  anthropometrist  must  necessarily  be  a  worthier 
type  of  mankind.  Until  he  receives  this  proof,  he  will  be  sat- 
isfied with  that  symmetry  and  proportion  which  nature  displays 
in  the  individual  frame,  when  the  conditions  of  health  —  that  is 
to  say,  the  harmony  of  the  body  and  the  will  —  are  carefully 
guarded  and  promoted. 

The  faithful  educator  who  understands  fully  the  needs  and 
the  aim  of  physical  training  will  never  allow  the  demands  for 


40 

physical  activity,  dexterity,  and  efficiency  to  lead  him  into  a  cor- 
ruption of  his  office  to  unworthy  ends.  He  will  not  consider 
it  within  the  province  of  his  training  to  endow  the  pupils  with 
the  swiftness  of  the  horse  or  the  suppleness  of  the  serpent. 
The  bodily  skill  which  he  shall  strive  to  produce  will  be  a  general 
and  not  a  special  one.  Even  the  demand  of  the  soldier  to  have 
that  skill  requisite  for  his  calling  developed  in  the  school  must 
be  made  subservient  to  the  general  purpose  of  physical  training 
in  the  schools. 

But  the  question  will  be  asked,  Shall  physical  training  be 
limited  to  this  relation  of  body  and  will  ?  Must  not  the  true 
system  be  one  that  shall  stimulate  the  intellect,  that  shall  arouse 
the  moral  qualities  of  courage,  self-reliance,  etc.  ?  I  reply  that 
a  true  system  of  physical  training  must  and  does.  But  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  necessity  of  a  prudent  distribution  of  labor 
even  in  educational  work.  Physical  education  is  not  synony- 
mous with  education.  It  is  but  one  of  the  many  departments 
of  the  whole  province  of  education.  Education  has  for  its  aim 
the  highest  development  of  the  best  possibilities  of  the  individ- 
ual. But  the  aim  can  be  obtained  only  through  the  harmonious 
workings  of  the  different  departments.  The  spiritual  and  moral 
education  shall  bring  the  human  will  into  harmony  with  the 
religious  and  moral  purposes  of  man.  The  intellectual  education 
shall  bring  the  will  under  the  leadership  of  the  enlightened 
intellect.  The  physical  education,  while  partaking  in  a  measure 
of  the  essence  of  the  other  departments,  shall  aim  especially  to 
bring  the  body  into  harmony  with  the  will. 

The  physical  educator  must  not  stand  isolated.  He  must 
take  his  position  upon  the  same  plane  and  by  the  side  of  the 
minister  and  the  secular  teacher.  When  this  is  done,  when 
they  begin  to  labor  in  sympathy  and  harmony,  then,  and  not 
till  then,  we  shall  begin  to  see  the  features  of  the  ideal  man. 

Ling's  pedagogical  gymnastics  is  a  system  of  physical  train- 
ing the  practical  application  of  which  is  in  accord  with  the  views 
upon  the  object  of  physical  training  which  I  have  advanced. 
While  it  develops  health,  strength,  proportion,  and  efficiency 
by  means  of  bodily  positions  and  movements,  based  upon  the 
laws  and  needs  of  human  organism,  the  central  idea  of  devel- 


41 

oping  and  increasing  the  will's  control  of  and  command  over 
the  body  is  expressed  in  every  movement,  in  every  day's  lesson 
and  throughout  the  whole  course  of  lessons,  by  which  the  train- 
ing is  carried  out. 

Without  going  into  a  detailed  description  of  this  system,  I 
would  say  that  I  should  deem  it  an  especial  favor  to  be  allowed 
to  make  answer  in  plain  sentences  to  the  charges  which  I  antici- 
pate will  be  brought  against  it.  Thanking  you  for  your  very 
kind  indulgence,  I  will  for  a  time  make  room  for  abler  and  more 
pleasurable  speakers. 


Second  .Session. 

FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  2. 


The  conference  was  called  to  order  at  3  P.M.  by  Dr.  Harris. 
The  following  paper  was  read  :  — 

THE  CHIEF  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  SWEDISH 

SYSTEM   OF   GYMNASTICS. 

i 

BY   NILS    POSSE,    M.G. 

IF  a  chemist  were  called  upon  to  explain  in  a  few  words  the 
general  contents  of  his  science  and  how  it  differs  from  other 
sciences,  he  would  probably  refrain  from  trying  such  an  experi- 
ment ;  for  his  dilemma  would  be  the  same  as  mine  to-day ;  he 
would  hardly  know  where  to  begin  or  how  to  select  from  such 
an  abundance  of  material.  The  fact  is,  that  to  understand  fully 
the  Swedish  system  of  gymnastics,  or  any  other  that  has  any 
righteous  claim  to  the  prefix  "system,"  it  is  necessary  to  be 
thoroughly  conversant  with  the  principles  that  are  fundamental 
to  all  gymnastics ;  it  is  a  knowledge  not  to  be  gained  in  a  few 
minutes,  nor  to  be  explained  in  a  few  words.  Yet  I  will  attempt 
to  state  briefly  in  what  respects  the  Swedish  method  differs 
from  the  others. 

The  Swedish  system  of  gymnastics,  devised  by  P.  H.  Ling  in 
the  beginning  of  this  century,  was  already  at  its  birth  founded 
upon  the  laws  of  nature  and  upon  the  laws  of  the  human  organ- 
ism. Since  the  days  of  Ling  the  system  has  been  much  per- 
fected and  improved  by  Ling's  followers,  who  have  made  it 
keep  even  pace  with  the  progress  in  those  sciences  upon  which 
it  is  based.  For  that  reason  the  system  is  not  altogether  as 
antiquated  as  some  of  its  antagonists  would  fain  have  the  unini- 
tiated think;  and  the  fact  that  it  has  survived  in  a  country 


43 

where  nothing  is  done  in  a  superficial  and  irrational  way  ought 
to  be  a  guarantee  for  its  efficiency. 

First  let  us  consider  how  the  exercises  are  selected. 

The  exercises  are  chosen  according  to  their  gymnastic  value, 
which  quality  depends  on  how  the  movement  combines  the 
utmost  effect  on  the  body  with  simplicity  and  beauty  of  per- 
formance. Only  such  exercises  are  used  whose  local  and  gen- 
eral effects  are  fairly  well  known  and  proved  to  be  needed  by 
the  body.  Not  only  the  needs  of  the  individual,  but  his  abilities 
as  well  are  to  be  taken  into  consideration ;  and  for  that  reason 
the  teacher  must  know  how  to  vary  the  exercises  according  to 
the  degree  of  physical  culture  possessed  by  the  pupil.  The  move- 
ment should  have  its  developing  effects  in  a  short  time ;  it 
should  be  simple  so  that  every  pupil  can  do  it  fairly  well ;  and  it 
should  have  beauty  of  execution  according  to  each  one's  ability. 

In  order  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  organism  and  to  develop 
the  body  harmoniously,  the  exercises  have  to  overcome  a  great 
many  tendencies  to  faulty  growth  or  bad  posture  ;  and  the  greater 
or  less  value  of  a  movement  depends  on  its  power  to  counteract 
or  correct  these  tendencies.  It  naturally  follows  that  the  sys- 
tem uses  no  exercises  which  would  encourage  such  faults  (for 
instance,  using  chest-weights  for  beginners,  etc.).  If  an  exer- 
cise gives  rise  to  faulty  posture,  it  is  discarded,  or  at  least  post- 
poned till  some  future  day  when  it  can  be  correctly  executed. 

In  accordance  with  the  physiological  truth  that  the  first,  great- 
est, and  most  extensive  effect  of  exercise  is  on  the  respiratory 
organs,  and  that  hence,  during  exercise,  these  organs  must  be 
allowed  perfect  freedom  of  motion,  the  Swedish  method  disap- 
proves of  and  discards  all  movements  which  compress  the  chest 
(such  as  Indian  club  swinging),  or  which  in  any  way  interfere 
with  free  respiration ;  and  the  greatest  attention  is  given  to  the 
proper  development  of  the  chest.  In  recognition  of  the  fact 
that,  to  be  truly  strong,  a  man  must  know  how  to  breathe  well, 
much  prominence  has  been  given  to  "respiratory"  exercises. 
"  Breathe ! "  "  Don't  hold  your  breath  ! "  are  common  exhorta- 
tions in  gymnasiums  where  this  method  is  used. 

In  judging  of  the  effects  of  an  exercise,  we  think  the  least  of 
the  muscular  development  produced ;  for,  the  effect  of  all  gen- 


44 

eral  exercise  is  to  develop  muscle,  and  this  aim  is  reached  with- 
out especially  working  for  it.  But  we  think  all  the  more  of  the 
effects  produced  on  nerves,  vessels,  etc.,  for  the  results  in  this 
direction  can  be  vastly  changed  by  varying  the  movements  (as 
demonstrated  in  Medical  Gymnastics)  ;  in  other  words,  the  exer- 
cises have  been  made  to  harmonize  with  the  laws  of  physiology. 
How  this  is  done  will  be  understood  from  the  description  of 
the  exercises  which  are  contained  in  each  lesson  (to  which  I 
shall  soon  refer). 

Measuring  a  man's  strength,  we  compare  the  man  to  himself ; 
we  do  not  say  that  a  man  is  strong  because  he  can  hold  so  much 
air,  or  because  he  can  lift  so  many  pounds,  or  because  he  can 
jump  so  high.  But  when  he  possesses  a  healthy,  well-balanced, 
and  well-proportioned  body,  which  his  will  has  under  good  con- 
trol, then  he  possesses  physical  culture,  even  though  in  the  eyes 
of  some  he  may  seem  weak  as  compared  to  others.  It  is  this 
health,  symmetry,  and  harmony  we  aim  at  in  selecting  the  exer- 
cises ;  and  that  the  Swedish  method  accomplishes  its  purpose 
has  been  too  well  demonstrated  to  leave  room  for  doubt. 

Movements  are  never  chosen  "because  they  look  so  pretty"  ; 
for  educational  gymnastics  do  not  aim  at  beauty  of  performance. 
When  gymnastics  do  have  such  an  aim  they  are  called  "  aestheti- 
cal,"  and  these  have  but  little  effect  toward  physical  develop- 
ment. And  yet  we  claim  that  when  a  movement  is  well  done 
it  is  graceful  as  well.  Some  persons  mistake  a  languid  manner 
of  motion  for  grace,  and  hence  claim  that  the  Swedish  exercises 
"are  too  jerky  to  be  graceful."  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  all 
gymnastic  movements  are  not  slow,  nor  do  they  have  an  even 
velocity ;  there  are  some  that  can  and  always  should  be  done 
with  great  and  accelerating  speed,  and  you  can  move  quickly 
and  yet  do  it  gracefully.  By  making  the  component  motions  of 
movements  like  the  arm-extensions  merge  into  each  other  in  a 
"  graceful "  manner,  the  effect  of  the  movements  is  completely 
lost.  On  the  other  hand,  if  exercises  like  leg-elevations,  back- 
ward-flexions of  the  trunk,  etc.,  are  done  in  a  "jerky"  manner, 
these  movements  are  incorrectly  executed  and  have  lost  their 
best  effects. 

Our  second  point  for  consideration  is  the  regularity  of  method. 


45 

In  order  that  gymnastics  be  systematic  there  must  be  pro- 
gression. In  the  Swedish  method  this  is  adhered  to  very 
strictly,  so  that  the  exercises,  beginning  by  the  very  simplest, 
gradually  become  stronger  and  more  complicated.  So  closely 
has  the  effect  of  movements  on  the  human  organism  been  stud- 
ied, that  the  slightest  change  of  position  —  even  the  turning  of 
a  hand  —  has  its  recognized  influence  in  the  progression ;  and 
it  is  here  that  the  system  demands  the  most  from  the  teacher : 
without  a  good  knowledge  in  this  direction  he  becomes  worse 
than  useless.  No  movement  is  attempted  unless  the  previous 
ones  of  the  same  kind  have  been  thoroughly  practised ;  and  no 
exercise  is  used  whose  commencing  position  has  not  already  been 
practised  sufficiently  to  guarantee  its  correctness ;  for,  if  the 
commencing  position  is  faulty,  the  movement  cannot  be  rightly 
executed. 

The  Swedish  method  does  not  disapprove  of  chest-weights, 
dumb-bells,  and  allied  forms  of  apparatus ;  but  through  years 
of  constant  practice  it  leads  up  to  them,  claiming  that  before 
increasing  the  weight  by  external  means,  you  should  make  a 
progression  by  prolonging  the  lever  of  the  weight  already  pres- 
ent. So,  for  instance,  a  backward-flexion  of  the  trunk  with  the 
arms  extended  upward  and  the  hands  holding  weights  must  neces- 
sarily be  preceded  by  the  same  movement  without  the  weights, 
and  that  by  a  flexion  with  the  hands  fixed  behind  the  neck,  and 
still  earlier  with  the  hands  on  the  hips,  etc. 

In  a  like  manner  the  method  prepares  the  way  for  aesthetical 
gymnastics,  for  fencing,  military  drill,  and  other  forms  of  applied 
gymnastics,  yet  insisting  that  educational  gymnastics  form  the 
basis  of  all  these.  This  is  reasonable  ;  for,  unless  you  have 
learned  to  control  the  involuntary  co-ordination  of  motion,  which 
is  the  cause  of  "faults"  in  gymnastics,  you  will  hardly  be  able 
to  produce  the  great  voluntary  co-ordination  required  in  all  forms 
of  advanced  gymnastics. 

Now,  when  you  are  to  put  this  progression  into  practice,  you 
will  not  feel  as  if  groping  in  the  dark ;  for,  in  this  method,  the 
movements  have  been  thoroughly  systematized  and  included 
under  distinctive  headings,  where  there  is  no  more  a  jumble, 
but  where  the  rules  of  progression  can  be  well  carried  through 


46 

by  a  teacher  familiar  with  the  theory  of  gymnastics.  After 
years  of  practical  investigation  it  was  found  that  if,  in  every 
lesson,  the  exercises  followed  each  other  in  a  certain,  compara- 
tively unchanging  order,  the  movements  could  be  made  stronger  ; 
they  could  be  given  more  duration ;  ill  results  could  be  completely 
prevented ;  and  hence  the  good  effects  became  all  the  more  pro- 
nounced. For  that  reason  all  movements  were  divided  into 
classes,  and  this  order  was  made  the  basis  for  the  classification. 
All  the  exercises  can  be  included  under  the  various  headings ; 
and  within  each  class  —  with  infinite  variety  —  the  exercises 
grow  gradually  stronger  as  the  pupils  develop. 

This  classification  will  be  found  not  only  to  contain  exercises 
filling  the  needs  of  the  organism,  but  to  correspond  to  physio- 
logical principles  as  well.  To  understand  this  we  shall  have  to 
consider  it  a  little  in  detail. 

(1)  Introductions.    By  these  we  understand  some  simple  exer- 
cises used  at  the  beginning  of  a  lesson  to  gain  a  little  general 
muscular  control,  to  correct  the  base  and  general  position,  etc. 

(2)  Arch-flexions,  which  consist  of   backward-flexions  of  the 
trunk ;  they  have  the  effect  of  straightening  the  dorsal  region 
of  the  spine ;  of  vaulting  the  chest  forward  by  drawing  the  lower 
ribs  apart,  thus  increasing  the  chest-capacity ;  and  of  cultivating 
the  extensibility  of  the  upper  region  of  the  abdomen. 

(3)  Heading-movements,  which  consist  of  various  exercises  in 
a  hanging  position,  and  others  that  have  the  effect  of  expanding 
the  upper  part  of  the  chest  by  lifting  it  upward ;  incidentally 
they  also  develop  the  arms.     If  these  movements  are  not  pre- 
ceded by  the  arch-flexions  they  will  produce  lameness  in  the 
upper  region  of  the  abdomen.      Free-standing  arm-extensions 
are  classified  in  this  group,  since  their  effects  resemble  those 
of  heaving-movements,  for  which  they  also  prepare  the  way. 

(4)  Balance-movements.      The   two   preceding   exercises   are 
strong,  hence  they  increase  the  heart-beat  noticeably.     Now  a 
rest  ought  to  ensue,  —  the  word  rest  not  to  be  understood  as 
meaning  inactivity,  but  changed  activity,  —  and  the  time  is  con- 
veniently filled  by  the  gentle  movements  which  we  call  balance- 
movements.     These  require  but  little  effort  from  any  one  of  the 
many  muscles  brought  into  play ;  the  heart-beat  is  not  increased 


47 

by  them,  but  it  becomes  lessened  by  the  mechanical  propulsion 
of  the  blood  into  the  legs  (the  more  equal  distribution  of  the 
blood-pressure).  At  the  end  of  a  balance-movement  the  pupil 
is  again  ready  for  more  specific  work. 

(5)  Slioulder-blade-movements  consist  of  arm-movements  which 
have  the  effect  of  placing  the  shoulder-blades  in  correct  posi- 
tion.    These    exercises  are  in  a  measure  dependent   on   arch- 
flexions  and  heaving-movements ;  for,  unless  the  dorsal  region 
of  the  spine  is  straightened  and  the  upper  region  of  the  chest 
is   extensible,   but   little   can   be  done  toward    overcoming  a 
"  stoop." 

(6)  Abdominal  exercises  bring  into  forcible  play  the  abdominal 
walls  ;  their  effects  are  to  incite  peristalsis,  to  promote  diges- 
tion and  to  shorten  the  stay  of  the  food  in  the  intestinal  canal. 

(7)  Lateral  trunk-movements  consist  of  rotations  and  sideways- 
flexions,  etc.,  of  the  trunk.     They  have  a  far-reaching  effect  on 
the  general  circulation  by  accelerating  the  flow  in  the  inferior 
vena  cava,  leading  the  blood  off  from  the  abdomen  and  legs, 
etc.     Incidentally   they  also   expand   the    chest   laterally   and 
strengthen  the  muscles  around  the  waist. 

(8)  Slow  leg-movements.    By  this  time  the  heart-beat  is  again 
much  increased  ;   the  slow  leg-movements  furnish  a  means  of 
lessening  it.     For,  by  these  the   blood   becomes  mechanically 
propelled  forward,  through  the  forcible,  passive   extension   of 
some  muscles,  while  others  are  in   gentle,  active  contraction. 
These  movements  may  be  conveniently  omitted,  when  the  pre- 
vious exercises  are  not  strong  enough  to  make  them  a  necessity. 

(9)  Jumping  and  vaulting.    These  exercises  have  the  effect  of 
cultivating  the  general  elasticity  of  the  body  more  than  does 
any  other  form  of  movement.     And  if  we  recall  that  grace  and 
elasticity  are  very  nearly  identical   in  gymnastics,  we   under- 
stand the  gymnastic  need  of  these  movements.     But  they  also 
have  practical  value  ;   for  we  are  often  called  upon  to  jump ; 
and  if  it  so  happens,  it  is  well  to  know  how.     They  develop 
courage,  self-reliance,  a  true  appreciation  of  space,  and  produce 
great  ability  of  voluntary  co-ordination  of  motion  as  well.     The 
Swedish  method  differs  from  all  others  (not  founded  on  it)  in 
its  manner  of  preparing  the  jumping  by  practising  the  inter- 


48 

mediate  positions,  before  the  real  movement  is  attempted,  as 
well  as  in  demanding  that  correct  "landing"  should  be  insisted 
upon.  In  like  manner  the  vaulting  is  prepared  by  first  culti- 
vating in  the  pupil  the  habit  of  clinging  to  the  bar,  no  matter 
what  happens,  before  he  is  made  to  leap  over  it.  And  the  pro- 
gression is  so  strict,  that  we  have  no  accidents  to  record  in  these 
"violent"  or  precipitate  movements. 

(10)  Respiratory  exercises.  These  consist  of  deep  inhalation 
and  exhalation  accompanied  by  some  arm-movement  that  will 
expand  and  contract  the  chest  in  even  rhythm  with  the  respira- 
tory act.  The  movements,  which  can  be  conveniently  combined 
with  some  movements  of  the  legs  or  trunk,  have  the  effect  of 
restoring  free  respiration  (the  jumping  putting  the  pupil  out  of 
breath)  and  to  lessen  the  heart-beat.  Respiratory  exercises  are 
brought  in  not  only  at  the  end  of  every  lesson,  but  at  any  time 
when  their  effects  are  needed,  and  often  also  at  the  beginning 
of  a  lesson  containing  strong  exercises  that  require  an  increased 
amount  of  oxygen. 

To  this  daily  curriculum  various  additions  are  often  made, 
such  as  to  bring  in  one  more  shoulder-blade-movement,  when 
needed ;  or  another  heaving-movement ;  or  an  abdominal  exer- 
cise ;  or  to  leave  the  last  one  entirely  out  for  children,  and  so 
on  —  as  the  teacher  may  decide. 

In  addition  to  the  free-standing  movements,  each  class  con- 
tains numberless  exercises  on  apparatus,  and  supplies  a  suffi- 
cient number  to  form  a  progression  from  early  infancy  to  well- 
developed  manhood  —  through  all  the  grades  in  school  and 
college,  and  in  after-life  as  well. 

The  third  point  in  which  the  Swedish  system  differs  from  the 
majority  of  others  is  in  the  method  of  applying  the  exercises. 

The  movements  are  applied  to  words  of  command,  this  being 
the  only  method  enabling  the  pupil  to  concentrate  his  mind  on 
one  thing  at  a  time,  that  thing  being  his  own  movement.  This 
is  in  accordance  with  the  definition  of  gymnastic  movement, 
which  tells  us  that,  unless  a  movement  is  done  with  full  volition, 
it  ceases  to  be  gymnastic.  In  those  methods  which  use  imita- 
tion, memorizing,  etc.,  the  movements  become  mechanical,  the 
pupil  dividing  his  attention  between  himself  and  something 


49 

outside  him,  i.e.  they  cease  to  be  gymnastic.  Objections  have 
been  raised  to  using  words  of  command,  because  "  it  is  too  tire- 
some," "too  soldier-like,"  etc.  To  this  we  can  answer,  that  to 
get  the  full  recreation  and  rest  out  of  exercise  we  should  put 
our  whole  mind  into  it,  this  being  much  less  tiresome  than  to 
exercise  while  we  think  of  something  else.  On  the  one  hand 
we  have  the  theory  of  a  small  minority  of  antagonists,  that 
gymnastics  without  music  do  not  give  enough  recreation,  espe- 
cially to  children,  because  there  is  not  enough  exhilaration  in 
such  exercises ;  on  the  other  hand  we  have  the  statement  of  a 
large  majority  of  children  and  others  who  have  tried  gymnastics 
to  music  as  well  as  to  words  of  command,  the  children  saying 
that  there  is  "  much  more  fun  "  in  the  latter,  and  the  adults 
that  there  is  "much  more  to  them."  As  for  the  second  objec- 
tion, we  claim  that  discipline  is  necessary  not  only  for  a  soldier 
but  for  everybody,  if  we  are  to  have  any  control  whatsoever 
over  ourselves ;  and  hence  discipline  should  form  a  part  of 
everybody's  education.  Words  of  command  have  other  advan- 
tages. They  teach  the  pupil  to  think  quickly ;  to  act  as  quickly 
and  to  do  a  thing  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  This  is  no 
little  gain  in  the  present  age  of  hurry  and  competition.  Besides, 
the  use  of  commands  enables  the  teacher  always  to  keep  his 
class  "in  hand"  ;  it  becomes  easier  for  him  not  only  to  teach, 
but  to  correct  as  well. 

The  Swedish  method  disapproves  utterly  of  the  use  of  music, 
for  the  very  simple  reason  that  but  few  gymnastic  movements 
are  rhythmical,  and  cannot  be  made  to  be  so  without  sacrificing 
the  movement.  On  the  other  hand,  every  gymnastic  movement 
has  a  rhythm  of  its  own,  which,  however,  distinctly  differs  from 
the  rhythm  of  music.  If  music  were  to  be  used,  its  rhythm 
would  have  to  change  at  every  motion,  and  I  doubt  if  any 
player,  even  a  Rubinstein,  would  be  able  to  make  it  do  so. 
Take,  for  instance,  such  a  movement  as  "preparation  to  jump- 
ing "  (consisting  of  I.  Heel-elevation.  2.  Knee-flexion.  3.  Knee- 
extension.  4.  Lowering  of  the  heels) ;  the  first  motion  is 
exceedingly  quick ;  the  second  moderately  quick ;  the  third 
comparatively  slow ;  and  the  fourth  still  slower.  Now,  where 
is  the  music  to  fit  such  a  movement  ? 


50 

A  recent  lecturer  on  gymnastics  made  the  somewhat  startling 
statement  that  "the  arm-movements  are  not  gymnastics  (for 
example  :  arms  extended  sideways,  in  front,  above  the  head, 
etc.)."  If  that  teacher  had  said  "arm-movements  done  to 
music  are  not  gymnastics,"  the  statement  would  have  been 
correct.  For  let  us  investigate  these  arm-extensions.  Start- 
ing with  arms  hanging  down,  they  consist  of  flexion  upward  of 
the  forearm,  a  movement  occurring  slowly  from  beginning  to 
end,  — if  it  is  to  be  done  correctly,  -  and  extension  in  any  direc- 
tion, which  movement,  once  started,  occurs  with  great  and 
accelerating  speed.  Now,  if  this  is  done  to  music,  the  flexion 
takes  place  so  quickly  that  the  forearm  rebounds  and  gives  the 
intermediate  position  of  semi-flexion  instead  of  complete  flexion. 
In  consequence  thereof  the  extensors  are  not  in  the  state  of 
complete  relaxation  which  should  exist  before  they  are  made  to 
contract,  and  their  contraction  will  not  be  as  forcible  nor  as 
quick  as  it  ought  to  be.  Besides,  the  music  will  give  it  the 
same  speed  as  it  gives  to  the  flexion,  which  is  entirely  wrong. 
In  most  flexions  a  great  many  comparatively  strong  muscles 
perform  the  motion,  hence  these  movements  must  occur  slowly ; 
whereas  the  extensions  are  executed  by  few  and  comparatively 
weaker  muscles,  hence  they  can  and  should  occur  more  quickly 
than  the  flexions.  This  is  especially  evident  in  the  arm-exten- 
sions just  mentioned,  and  when  they  are  done  to  music,  their 
gymnastic  form  always  has  to  be  sacrificed,  i.e.  they  cease  to  be 
gymnastics.  In  a  like  manner  we  could  investigate  all  other 
gymnastic  movements  and  with  the  same  result  in  all  except  a 
few  oscillatory  movements,  like  walking,  running,  etc. 

Besides,  when  exercising  to  music,  the  pupil  will  be  found 
to  pay  more  attention  to  the  rhythm  of  the  music  than  to  the 
form  of  the  movement  (if  we  presume  that  the  latter  could  be 
made  rhythmical),  and  we  get  the  same  result  as  in  all  cases 
where  work  is  done  with  divided  attention  —  one  of  the  things 
has  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  other. 

From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  the  system  is  rational, 
since  it  seeks  a  reason  for  everything  that  it  uses  or  adopts  : 
it  makes  theory  and  practice  harmonize.  But  it  is  practical  as 


well ;  for  it  does  not  rely  on  elaborate  apparatus  for  existence, 
since  the  exercises,  not  the  apparatus,  constitute  the  system. 
The  movements  can  be  taken  anywhere  where  there  is  suffi- 
cient floor-space  to  stand  on  and  sufficient  oxygen  in  the  air. 
On  the  other  hand,  though  the  system  prefers  its  own  appara- 
tus, the  exercises  can  be  most  easily  adapted  to  apparatus 
belonging  to  other  systems,  or  to  such  simple  means  as  ordi- 
nary chairs  and  desks,  or  other  furniture.  Though  apparatus 
is  desirable,  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  for  good  physical 
development,  especially  in  gymnastics  for  children. 

Whatever  its  deficiencies,  the  system  has  not  only  survived 
on  its  own  merits,  in  spite  of  the  close  scrutiny  to  which  it 
has  been  subjected  by  gymnastically  learned  men  all  over  the 
world,  but  it  has  finally  been  adopted  in  every  country  where 
its  principles  have  been  thoroughly  tested,  even  conservative 
England  having  at  last  yielded. 

Before  closing,  I  take  occasion  to  warn  you  against  confound- 
ing Swedish  Educational  Gymnastics  with  Medical  Gymnastics, 
commonly  known  as  "  Swedish  Movement  Cure "  ;  although 
based  on  the  same  principles,  the  two  are  entirely  different,  not 
only  as  to  their  purposes,  but  in  the  exercises  used  as  well. 

An  exhibition  of  the  Swedish  system  of  gymnastics  was  then 
given  by  a  class  of  ladies  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Posse. 

DISCUSSION. 
Dr.  Harris  invited  the  Earl  of  Meath  to  open  the  discussion. 

The  EARL  OF  MEATH.  —  Mr.  President,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen,  —  I  was 
utterly  unprepared  to  be  called  upon  at  this  early  hour ;  I  had  hoped  first  to 
hear  a  little  of  the  discussion.  It  is  certainly  true  that  I  have  been  interested 
in  this  question  of  physical  education,  but  I  am  afraid  that  I  cannot  lay  claim 
to  any  great  knowledge  on  the  subject.  It  is  also  true,  as  you  have  been  told, 
that  "conservative  England"  has,  to  a  certain  extent,  adopted  the  Swedish 
system.  That  is  to  say,  the  Swedish  system  has  been  quite  recently  intro- 
duced into  the  board  schools  of  London,  and  I  and  others  are  endeavoring 
to  induce  the  Government  and  local  authorities  to  spread  this  system  through 
the  board  schools  of  the  whole  land;  however,  we  have  not  yet  succeeded. 
The  reason  that  we  in  England  believe  this  Swedish  system  to  be  the  one 
best  adapted  to  our  schools,  is,  I  am  afraid,  one  which  the  eminent  lecturer 


52 

would  not  think  a  very  good  one.  I  believe  it  is  simply  because  we  find  it 
the  most  economical.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  taxpayers  do  not  like  to  be 
taxed ;  and  if  you  can  show  them  that  you  can  help  them  without  compelling 
them  to  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  to  pay  for  it,  they  will  listen.  We 
who  are  anxious  to  have  physical  education  carried  out  have  rather  jumped  at 
this  Swedish  system  because  they  told  us  that  no  apparatus  was  necessary, 
and  I  believe  that  a  good  many  support  it  for  that  reason.  But  I  believe 
there  is  a  great  deal  more  to  be  said  in  its  favor  than  that  it  is  economical. 
Those  who  have  tried  it  are  persuaded  that  it  has  the  most  scientific  principles 
behind  it  upon  which  one  can  teach  physical  exercises  ;  that  whereas  the  ordi- 
nary system  only  exercises  certain  muscles,  this  system  exercises  all,  and  in 
such  a  way  that  it  shall  not  be  hurtful  to  the  muscles  or  injurious  to  the  health 
of  the  pupils.  An  illustration  of  the  success  of  the  Ling  system  was  seen  this 
year  in  London,  when  a  Swedish  gentleman,  anxious  to  show  what  his  country 
could  do,  brought  together  some  forty  Swedish  gentlemen,  picked  indiscrimi- 
nately from  those  he  met  at  the  Paris  Exhibition,  and  invited  them  to  London  to 
show  what  they  could  do  in  Sweden.  These  gentlemen,  of  all  professions, 
came  together,  and  after  exercising  simply  four  times,  gave  an  athletic  exhibi- 
tion which  I  do  not  think  could  have  been  equalled  except  by  professional 
acrobats  in  our  country. 

I  believe  that  in  this  country,  as  well  as  in  the  one  I  come  from,  physical 
exercises  are  much  needed.  In  England  our  towns  are  rapidly  increasing. 
Here  also  you  have  large  centres  of  population,  and  in  these  centres  there  are 
few  means  for  the  poorer  classes  to  train  their  children  in  healthy  exercise. 
In  New  York  I  have  been  struck  by  the  want  of  open  spaces  where  children 
can  exercise  their  limbs.  I  believe  that  if  these  civilized  nations  that  are 
congregated  into  large  centres  do  not  take  some  means  to  exercise  the  young, 
that  we  shall  find  physical  deterioration  taking  place.  I  am  perfectly  certain 
that  that  is  the  case  in  the  large  towns  of  England,  and  I  feel  pretty  sure, 
after  passing  through  some  of  the  more  crowded  parts  of  New  York,  that 
this  physical  training  is  just  as  much  needed  here.  It  is  therefore  with  the 
greatest  pleasure  that  I  welcome  the  advent  of  Swedish  gentlemen  here  who 
are  able  to  demonstrate  to  you  what  a  successful  system  the  Swedish  system 
is,  and  I  only  hope  that  we  shall  see  this  system  introduced  into  all  of  our 
national  schools  and  into  all  of  our  public  schools. 

Dr.  JAY  W.  SEAVER  of  Yale  University.  —  This  is  a  day  when  Yale  men 
are  not  in  public.  Princeton  put  us  in  the  hole  yesterday,  and  I  do  not  know 
when  we  shall  be  able  to  come  out !  But  I  know  that  Yale  men  agree  with 
me  in  feeling  great  interest  in  this  matter  of  physical  education ;  and  so  I  am 
heart  and  soul  with  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  Boston,  in  your  meetings 
here  to-day  and  to-morrow,  where  you  are  trying  to  arrive  at  some  conclusion 
as  to  what  shall  be  the  best  system  of  physical  training  to  introduce  into  your 
public  schools.  You  seem  to  have  reached  the  point  that  you  see  there  is  a 
need  for  something,  and  that  is  half  of  the  battle. 

I  do  not  know  enough  about  this  Swedish  system  to  say  that  that  is  the  one 


53 

which  will  satisfy  every  need.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is.  I  might  say  exactly 
the  same  of  the  German  system,  and  I  might  say  that  we  have  not  yet  in 
America  developed  a  system  that  will  be  perfectly  satisfactory,  but  I  do  believe 
that  you  are  right  when  you  try  to  start  on  some  systematic  method.  As  far 
as  my  knowledge  goes,  there  has  never  been  a  system  developed  with  so  much 
scientific  study  and  painstaking  as  this  Ling  system.  But  our  American  needs 
are  peculiar.  If  we  had  an  open  lot  in  every  square  in  our  large  cities,  and 
pleasant  weather  through  the  twelve  months  of  the  year,  I  do  not  think  that 
we  should  need  many  gymnasiums.  I  am  an  advocate  of  out-door  work.  So 
far  I  am  "English,  you  know!"  I  advise  every  man  to  work  out  doors  so 
long  as  he  can,  even  until  the  weather  is  inclement.  But  I  recognize  that  we 
must  have  something  else.  Now,  then,  if  this  Swedish  system  is  the  one  that 
can  best  be  adapted  to  your  Boston  circumstances  and  surroundings,  if  you 
can  make  the  environment  modify  that  system  so  that  it  shall  become  Ameri- 
canized, I  believe  you  will  have  the  most  perfect  system  that  has  ever  been 
developed.  I  believe  in  it  because  you  have  a  peculiar  condition  in  your 
public  schools.  You  have  children  who  are  over-trained  mentally  and  under- 
trained  physically.  We  are  producing  a  set  of  dudes,  and  not  of  robust, 
hardy  young  men  and  women.  We  want  to  turn  right  about  face,  and  get 
more  bone  and  muscle,  more  blood  in  our  necks,  and  then  we  shall  accom- 
plish more.  If  we  do  this  we  shall  not  retrograde.  The  Ling  system  will 
train  and  develop  the  bodies  of  our  boys  and  girls. 

But  I  believe  that  if  we  adopt  this  system  we  must  modify  it.  Whatever 
system  we  take,  it  must  be  adapted  to  the  circumstances  in  a  scientific  way, 
so  that  we  may  get  results  that  shall  mean  something.  If  we  make  mistakes 
we  can  again  change  and  modify.  That  is  the  peculiar  genius  of  America. 
We  are  not  afraid  to  try  something  new,  to  launch  out  into  seas  before  un- 
known to  us.  If  we  make  mistakes  we  easily  repair  them.  The  system  for 
your  schools  must  be  something  entirely  different  from  that  of  our  colleges. 
The  work  that  Dr.  Hitchcock  is  doing  at  Amherst,  Dr.  Sargent  is  doing  at 
Harvard,  and  Dr.  Hartwell  is  doing  at  Baltimore,  is  very  different  from  what 
is  demanded  in  the  primary,  grammar,  and  high  schools.  The  conditions  are 
different.  They  work  for  men  who  have  reached  years  of  intelligence,  who 
are  old  enough  to  have  judgment  and  regard  for  their  own  physical  welfare. 
If  a  course  of  work  is  marked  out  for  them,  they  will  follow  it.  But  you  can- 
not do  this  with  children.  They  do  not  know  what  is  best  for  themselves  and 
they  do  not  care,  and  as  we  are  crowding  them  five  hours  in  the  day  and  five 
days  in  the  week  with  mental  work,  we  must  provide  something  for  their 
physical  welfare.  We  must  build  them  up  physically  and  give  an  outlet  to  the 
nervous  energy  which  is  driving  them  on  day  after  day,  and  making  old  men 
and  women  of  them  before  they  are  out  of  their  teens. 

What  will  the  Swedish  system  do?  I  believe  one  criticism  can  be  made 
that  is  fair  and  honest,  —  that  it  requires  too  much  mental  attention.  The 
pupil  must  have  his  attention  centred  on  the  instructor  all  the  time.  The 
pupil  has  all  the  time  to  watch  for  the  word  of  command.  Here  in  America 


54 

(it  may  be  wrong,  but  it  is  true)  we  do  not  care  a  snap  for  any  man's  say  so. 
We  do  not  like  to  be  ordered  around  to  do  anything.  It  always  made  me 
mad,  as  a  boy,  and  it  does  still,  to  have  any  one  talk  to  me  in  a  dictatorial 
way.  I  believe  it  is  contrary  to  the  American  spirit  and  custom.  Is  this  an 
insuperable  objection  to  the  Swedish  system?  I  think  not.  I  believe  that 
some  of  these  gentlemen  who  are  so  successful  as  teachers  will  see  the  needs 
of  America,  and  will  modify  that  certainly  objectionable  phase.  It  is  for  you 
Yankee  schoolma'ams  to  help  out  in  this,  and  I  am  glad  to  see  you  are  inter- 
ested in  this  work,  for  I  am  told  that  it  is  mostly  school  teachers  who  have 
illustrated  this  system  in  class  work  here  to-day.  You  know  the  needs  of 
Yankee  boys  and  girls,  as  well  as  of  Irish  and  German.  If  you  understand 
this  Swedish  system,  you  will  see  chances  for  improving  it.  It  is  not  a  sys- 
tem that  was  established  one  hundred  years  ago  in  all  its  perfection,  born,  like 
a  certain  mythological  creature,  full-armed  and  ripe.  It  has  been  the  devel- 
opment of  generations.  Add  the  developments  of  another  generation  to  it, 
and  see  if  it  will  not  be  a  little  more  perfect  flower  than  it  is  to-day.  I  believe 
that  if  there  is  one  thing  where  we  Yankees  surpass  other  people,  it  is  in  our 
inventive  ingenuity.  We  are  always  criticising,  and  seeing  some  fault  that 
we  can  remedy  in  other  people's  work.  Can  we  not  take  this  system  and 
remodel  it,  and  make  it  just  what  we  want? 

I  am,  further,  a  great  believer  in  the  good  effect  of  the  personality  of  a 
teacher.  I  do  not  believe  you  will  ever,  by  hunting  around,  find  a  system 
that  will  be  successful  in  the  hands  of  every  teacher.  I  believe  Dr.  Sargent 
must  pursue  one  method,  Dr.  Anderson  another ;  Dr.  Hitchcock  will  follow 
another,  and  that  Dr.  Hartwell  will  take  still  another.  The  foundation  princi- 
ple being  the  same,  the  method  of  execution  may  differ.  We  cannot  follow 
in  the  same  method,  or  run  in  the  same  rut ;  but  if  there  be  any  system  de- 
vised which  shall  introduce  individual  enthusiasm  into  this  work,  we  shall 
have  success.  . 

Dr.  W.  G.  ANDERSON  of  the  Brooklyn  School  for  Physical  Training.  — 
I  am  an  American.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  I  should  defend  anything 
that  is  American  if  it  is  worthy  of  defence.  Mr.  Posse  has  given  several 
exercises  illustrating  the  methods  adopted  by  our  teachers.  I  have  never 
seen  a  good  teacher  give  such  grotesque  movements.  They  are  not  fair 
selections  from  our  work. 

The  so-called  American  system  is  as  scientific  as  that  of  Ling.  Why 
should  it  not  be?  We  begin  where  he  stopped;  we  have  his  experience.  I 
have  much  respect  for  the  German  and  Swedish  systems ;  I  have  had  expe- 
rience in  both :  but,  taken  as  they  are,  they  will  not  suit  the  American  people. 
We  have  ideas  of  our  own ;  and  it  is  not  often  that  methods  of  other  coun- 
tries will  suit  us,  unless  they  are  modified.  I  believe  in  music.  My  expe- 
rience has  shown  me  that  as  good  results  can  be  obtained  from  many  exercises 
if  accompanied  by  appropriate  music.  If  two  classes  take  the  same  move- 
ments, one  class  working  to  an  accompaniment  played  by  an  expert  (for  it 
requires  an  expert  to  play  for  gymnastics),  the  other  class  drilled  by  counting 


55 

or  thumping  on  the  floor  with  a  stick,  how  can  you  prove  that  music  has 
been  detrimental  in  one  case,  while  the  counting  was  beneficial  in  the  other? 
Did  the  fife  and  drum  have  any  effect  on  tired  soldiers  during  the  war?  I 
have  not  found  that  the  exhilaration  caused  by  music  in  gymnastics  has  inter- 
fered with  the  muscular  or  nervous  training  of  children.  We  do  not,  of 
course,  do  everything  to  music,  but  many  of  the  lighter  exercises  can  be  thus 
executed;  and  I  have  yet  to  hear  an  argument  that  will  convince  me  that 
such  gymnastic  training  suffers  by  music.  This  work  is  to  go  on  in  the 
schools.  I  hardly  think  it  will  be  a  success  if  pupils  are  obliged  to  exercise 
in  the  space  between  the  desks,  while  the  regular  teacher  leads  them. 

In  the  first  place,  we  do  not  associate  physical  culture  with  a  small  space. 
Room  is  required.  The  aisles  will  of  necessity  limit  the  number  of  exercises, 
while,  in  the  second  place,  I  do  not  believe  the  regular  teacher  can  or  will 
spare  the  time  to  learn  the  science  of  physical  training,  that  she  may  teach 
gymnastics  to  her  pupils. 

Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  our  teachers  have  all  they  can  do.  Their 
time  is  spoken  and  paid  for.  Extra  work  will  involve  additional  expense. 
I  admit  that  a  few  enthusiastic  teachers  will  start  the  work  in  their  schools, 
but  I  doubt  if  they  keep  it  up.  It  is  not  for  a  week  or  month :  it  is  for  years, 
day  after  day.  I  would  suggest  that  the  basements  be  cleared  out,  well 
heated,  lighted,  and  ventilated,  equipped  with  appliances  for  light  gymnastics, 
a  special  teacher  engaged,  and  the  pupils  sent  to  her  from  fifteen  to  thirty 
minutes  a  day. 

The  instructor  of  gymnastics,  being  a  specialist,  can  do  better  work  than 
the  regular  teacher,  who  would  be  compelled  to  learn  two  professions  if  she 
were  to  supervise  the  work  and  teach  it  as  it  should  be  taught.  I  believe 
that  the  system  adopted  by  the  Boston  Public  Schools  must  be  an  eclectic 
one.  It  must  embrace  the  best  ideas  of  all  known  methods.  The  unmodi- 
fied Swedish  and  German  systems  are  not  so  attractive  to  Americans  as 
the  same  arrangements  changed  to  suit  our  likes  and  dislikes.  The  system 
itself  will  not  produce  the  results,  but  the  way  the  system  is  taught.  I  believe 
that  perfection  exists  only  in  the  mind.  If  our  system  is  perfect,  we  can  only 
approach  this  high  standard  by  the  best-known  methods  of  imparting  knowl- 
edge. All  the  country  will  watch  the  Boston  schools  if  they  adopt  physical 
training  as  a  part  of  their  regular  curriculum,  because  of  their  reputation  in 
mental  work.  If  these  schools  are  going  to  give  but  a  few  minutes  each  day 
to  gymnastics,  and  the  work  be  confined  to  the  aisles,  we  shall  not  have  grand 
results.  If  a  mental  branch  requires  one  hour  a  day,  then  why  not  give  the 
same  time  to  corporal  education? 

I  have  spoken  rather  positively  on  this  subject,  because  I  have  some  right 
to-  For  six  years  I  have  given  all  of  my  time  as  a  physician  to  the  physical 
training  of  school  teachers  and  children.  In  the  Adelphi  Academy,  where  I 
teach,  there  are  nearly  one  thousand  pupils  of  both  sexes,  the  majority  of 
whom  take  exercise  daily  (obligatory).  This  has  given  me  an  opportunity 
to  make  observations  that  no  other  American  physician  has  had ;  in  fact,  I 


56 

do  not  know  of  another  doctor  of  medicine  in  this  country  who  can  make  the 
same  statement.  If  the  Allen  system  is  the  best,  I  should  recommend  its 
adoption.  If  the  Ling  or  German  systems  will  answer,  then  take  them.  I 
do  not  believe  we  are  in  a  position  just  now  to  say  which  is  the  best.  If  the 
Boston  masters  will  try  the  Ling  system  for  one  year,  then  we  shall  have  men 
who  can  better  judge  of  its  merits ;  but  at  the  same  time  a  similar  test  should 
be  given  to  the  so-called  American  system.  One  word  about  my  own  methods. 
Most  of  the  gymnastic  motions  I  have  classified  into  an  alphabet  of  sixteen 
movements,  each  having  its  own  name  and  special  purpose.  The  combina- 
tions made  by  this  arrangement  are  countless.  The  various  physical  defects 
in  children  caused  by  lack  of  proper  exercise  have  been  tabulated,  and  the 
movements  of  the  alphabet  adapted  to  them.  There  is  a  cause,  reason  for, 
and  remedy  for  such  defects,  which  include  certain  mental  weaknesses,  and 
we  try  to  make  the  children  understand  the  "whys  and  wherefores"  of  this 
work.  Progression  is  a  part  of  our  methods.  Variety  is  essential.  We  try 
to  make  the  work  pleasing.  We  borrow  and  modify,  if  necessary,  ideas  from 
other  systems.  We  believe  that  this  training  is  beneficial  to  both  mind  and 
body. 

The  President  then  introduced  Dr.  Edward  Hitchcock  of 
Amherst  as  one  of  the  pioneers  in  physical  education  in  this 
country.  Dr.  Hitchcock  read  a  paper  on  "Some  Principles 
regarded  as  Essential  in  the  Direction  of  the  Department  of 
Physical  Education  and  Hygiene,"  prefacing  it  with  the  follow- 
ing remarks :  — 

Dr.  HITCHCOCK. — I  do  not  know  what  to  say  about  children,  except  that 
we  have  had  ten  of  them  at  our  house  ;  but  as  to  children  in  the  public  schools 
I  do  not  know  anything  about  them.  If  I  can  help  you  any  by  telling  you 
what  we  have  been  doing  at  Amherst  College  in  physical  education,  I  shall  be 
glad  to  do  it.  Let  me  say  first  that  I  am  grateful  for  the  compliments  that 
these  young  and  bright  men  have  given  to  me. 

The  gentlemen  have  spoken  of  American  methods.  I  have  been  working 
at  physical  culture  for  quarter  of  a  century,  expecting  every  year  that  Amherst 
College  would  want  to  try  another  man,  but  I  am  still  there.  I  do  not,  how- 
ever, think  that  we  have  a  system.  We  have  got  a  branch  of  the  service,  as 
artillery,  infantry,  and  the  various  bureaus  are  branches  of  the  military  ser- 
vice. But  I  do  not  think  that  we  have  a  system  that  can  be  incorporated  in 
the  schools  yet.  I  must  take  a  strong  stand  on  that.  We  have  not  a  univer- 
sal system  that  will  govern  us.  But  I  am  rejoiced  that  the  Boston  people  are 
discussing  the  question  of  the  Ling  system.  I  rejoice  that  they  are  ready  and 
willing  to  bring  up  something  different  from  what  we  have  been  at  work  at, 
and  by  and  by  we  shall  get  something  worthy  out  of  it.  We  are  always  ex- 
perimenting ;  indeed  we  are  an  experiment  as  a  nation. 


SOME   PRINCIPLES   REGARDED   AS   ESSENTIAL 

IN  THE  DIRECTION  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  PHYSICAL   EDUCA- 
TION AND   HYGIENE. 

"  There  really  does  not  exist  a  system  of  physical  education  which  is  both  natural 
and  essential,  and  which  can  be,  and  has  been,  beneficially  incorporated  into  existing 
educational  methods."  —  DR.  G.  D.  STAHLEY,  in  "TAe  Doctor"  for  November,  1889. 

BY    DR.    EDWARD    HITCHCOCK. 

PHYSICAL  education,  as  the  term  is  understood  in  Amherst 
College,  is  such  a  cultivation  of  the  powers  and  capabilities  of 
the  student  as  will  enable  him  to  maintain  his  bodily  conditions 
in  the  best  working  order,  while  providing  at  the  same  time  for 
the  greatest  efficiency  of  his  intellectual  and  spiritual  life.  To 
promote  this  end,  official  direction  should  so  control  the  student 
that  he  cannot  seriously  neglect  his  physical,  with  which  are  so 
closely  interdependent  his  intellectual  and  moral  interests.  He 
must  not  be  permitted  to  cultivate  any  other  part  of  his  nature 
at  the  expense  of  the  physical,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  any  part 
of  the  physical  at  the  expense  of  any  other  part. 

Every  student,  immediately  on  entering  college,  is  subjected 
to  a  thorough  and  searching  anthropometric  examination,  and 
furnished  with  a  systematic  statement  of  his  physical  condition. 
To  each  are  then  given,  by  public  lecture  and  private  interview, 
certain  theoretical  and  practical  principles  by  which  he  may  care 
intelligently  for  his  own  health.  As  early  as  possible  in  the 
course  he  receives  instruction  in  human  anatomy  and  physiol- 
ogy, illustrated  by  actual  preparations  of  the  human  body  and 
by  papier  macht  models. 

Every  student  of  average  health  of  body  and  condition  of 
limbs  is  required  to  take,  under  the  eye  of  a  professor,  teacher, 
or  director,  as  often  as  four  days  in  each  week,  a  certain  mini- 
mum amount  of  muscular  exercise,  of  such  nature  as  is  adapted 
to  a  class  of  young  men  working  together.  The  exertion  de- 


58 

manded  by  this  exercise  is  not  violent,  but  only  such  as  is 
rhythmic,  steady,  and  adapted  to  secure  free  movements  of  the 
body  and  limbs.  The  results  sought  therein  are  elasticity,  vigor, 
and  suppleness,  rather  than  great  or  prolonged  muscular  power. 

Besides  its  provision  for  the  simple  and  somewhat  methodical 
movements  required  of  the  students  by  classes,  the  gymnasium 
is  furnished  with  abundant  fixed  apparatus  for  bilateral  use,  and 
for  the  symmetrical  development  of  all  parts  of  the  body ;  which 
apparatus  is  intended  for  voluntary  use  by  the  students.  Also 
to  a  few  men  in  the  college  a  limited  supply  of  heavy  apparatus 
is  accessible,  though  always  to  be  used  under  more  or  less  super- 
vision from  the  director  or  trainer.  With  this  special  apparatus 
the  director  is  able  to  prescribe  exercises  adapted  to  any  individ- 
ual whose  bodily  development  is  unequal  or  imperfect. 

In  addition  to  the  above-mentioned  uses,  the  gymnasium  is 
regarded  as  the  place  where  play  and  amusement  not  of  a 
required,  systematic  or  prescribed  character  may  be  had  and 
encouraged. 

Athletic  sports  and  contests  are  to  be  encouraged  within 
limits.  The  physical  examinations  will  reveal  a  few  who  ought 
under  no  consideration  to  enter  a  race,  match  game,  or  contest 
for  a  prize  or  record.  For  the  great  mass  of  the  students,  how- 
ever, training  in  out-door  sports  is  considered  most  desirable. 

Every  one  is  recommended  also  to  be  out  of  doors,  in  wind, 
storm,  or  sunshine,  engaged  in  some  active  exercise  such  as 
walking,  running,  or  riding,  for  at  least  one  good  hour  each  day. 
This  is  a  supplement  to  the  gymnasium,  not  a  substitute  for  it : 
a  well-lighted,  well-heated,  bath-furnished  gymnasium,  readily 
accessible  the  year  round,  is  a  sine  qua  non  for  the  education 
of  college  students,  whatever  else  they  may  have  in  the  way 
of  physical  training. 

Experience  has  demonstrated  the  need  of  having  in  charge 
of  the  department  two  medical  men,  who  may  be  freely  con- 
sulted on  all  matters  of  public  and  personal  health,  and  in  all 
ordinary  accidents  and  disorders,  though  with  no  compulsion 
to  the  student  as  to  treatment  strictly  medical.  These  physi- 
cians are  expected,  in  term  time,  to  know  the  physical  condi- 
tion of  every  student ;  a  duty  easily  fulfilled,  as  they  meet  the 


59 

student  at  his  daily  required  exercise  at  the  gymnasium,  where 
any  physical  weakness  will  certainly  manifest  itself. 

A  competitive  class  exhibition  has  proved  itself  an  essential 
requisite  for  keeping  up  a  high  standard  of  class  work.  Am- 
herst  College  believes,  moreover,  that  the  department  of  physi- 
cal education  and  hygiene  should  stand  on  a  footing  of  recognized 
equality  with  the  other  departments  of  the  curriculum. 

That  is  the  result  of  what  we  have  been  doing  at  Amherst 
for  twenty-eight  years.  It  is  not  a  standard  for  Boston,  or  any 
one  else.  I  do  not  suppose  Dr.  Sargent,  Dr.  Seaver,  or  Dr.  An- 
derson would  adopt  it.  It  is  greatly  dependent  on  the  person- 
ality of  the  man.  The  personality  of  the  man  must  guide  his 
class.  A  teacher  of  Greek,  mathematics,  or  literature  may  be 
an  excellent  teacher  of  these  branches,  and  not  necessarily  be 
able  to  teach  physical  education  well.  Until  we  are  able  to  get 
good  teachers,  and  are  willing  to  pay  them  well,  I  am  afraid  we 
shall  continue  in  this  experimental  age. 

A  dumb-bell  exercise  followed,  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  H.  L. 
Chadwick,  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  who  con- 
tended that  America  had  a  system  of  her  own,  and  that  he 
would  demonstrate  that  fact  by  the  exercises  of  the  class  of 
boys  before  the  audience. 

The  discussion  was  then  resumed,  and  Dr.  Harris  called  first 
on  Dr.  Alice  T.  Hall  of  the  Women's  College,  Baltimore. 

Dr.  HALL.  —  The  Women's  College  of  Baltimore  was  the  first  to  place 
the  department  of  physical  education  on  the  same  plane  as  the  other  depart- 
ments, requiring  an  hour  a  day  through  the  four  years  before  a  degree  will  be 
granted.  When  I  began  to  study  this  question  of  physical  training,  I  took  a 
few  weeks'  course  of  Dr.  Sargent.  I  did  not  ask  for  a  certificate,  for  I  knew 
that  after  five  weeks'  study  I  did  not  know  enough  to  teach  gymnastics.  But 
I  got  an  idea  of  what  a  teacher  should  be.  Then  I  went  to  see  the  systems 
in  other  countries.  I  went  first  to  Germany.  There  I  saw  the  girls  exercise 
in  unhygienic  clothing  and  in  an  unhygienic  room  and  in  an  uninterested 
manner.  Still,  I  thought  they  did  very  well.  Then  I  went  to  Sweden,  and 
the  first  thing  that  impressed  me  was  the  magnificent  carriage  of  the  men, 
women,  and  children.  They  walked  without  music;  they  held  themselves 
erect;  their  heads  were  well  poised;  their  step  was  firm;  they  had,  in  a 
word,  perfect  control  of  themselves,  to  an  extent  that  I  had  never  seen  in  any 


6o 

other  country.  I  went  to  the  schools.  I  saw  the  children  exercising  at  their 
desks,  with  little  apparatus.  Their  attention  was  something  remarkable. 
Every  eye  was  in  the  right  place ;  they  were  not  looking  at  their  neighbors ; 
their  motions  were  perfect,  and  they  were  as  interested  as  they  possibly  could 
be.  Then  and  there  I  decided  that  the  Swedish  system  was  the  one  that 
could  be  used  to  the  greatest  advantage  in  America,  until  we  had  taken  what 
was  best  in  all,  and  made  a  system  of  our  own.  That  is  what  I  believe  we 
are  coming  to.  When  our  gymnastic  classes  were  formed  in  Baltimore,  they 
were  put  under  the  care  of  a  Swedish  lady  who  had  graduated  from  the  Royal 
Central  Institute  at  Stockholm.  I  noticed  that  the  girls  who  entered  were 
like  ordinary  American  college  girls.  They  carried  themselves  in  the  Ameri- 
can style.  They  were  free  and  easy,  but  their  movements  were  not  altogether, 
good.  In  a  month's  time  the  improvement  was  something  wonderful.  Their 
walk  on  the  street  and  their  carriage  in  general  is  remarkably  improved,  and 
they  have  had  as  yet  but  twelve  lessons.  We  Americans  have  a  great  liking 
for  apparatus.  We  can  do  anything;  but  we  must  have  appliances  to  do 
with.  We  like  to  have  people  see  that  we  can  do  things  well.  But  I  should 
say  that  if  we  have  to  consider  economy  in  connection  with  this  question,  let 
us  economize  in  the  apparatus.  Let  us  provide  as  simple  apparatus  as  may 
be,  and  give  the  money  to  the  teachers  for  teaching  gymnastics.  We  shall 
get  better  teachers  if  we  pay  better  salaries.  The  exhibitions  which  have 
been  given  demonstrate  pretty  fairly  the  different  systems.  In  the  last,  the 
so-called  American,  we  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  energy  expended,  and  many 
movements  that  would  have  been  well  done  had  more  attention  been  given  to 
position.  In  the  German  system,  we  have  seen  the  effect  of  not  training  the 
attention,  and  I  think  this  is  one  of  the  most  important  things  to  be  trained. 
If  a  child's  attention  is  trained,  and  its  powers  of  observation  are  well 
developed,  that  child  will  do  better  work  in  his  other  studies.  That  is  one  of 
the  reasons  why  I  favor  the  Swedish  system,  for  it  gives  those  results. 

Dr.  HELEN  PUTNAM  of  Vassar  College.  —  All  colleges  for  women  will  be 
glad  to  see  the  public  schools  adopt  some  good  system  of  physical  training. 
I  have  been  interested  in  ascertaining  from  the  students  at  Vassar  the  amount 
of  physical  education  which  they  had  previous  to  coming  to  college,  and  have 
recorded  these  data,  to  guide  us  in  adapting  our  work  to  their  abilities,  and 
to  inform  myself  as  to  the  work  of  schools  in  this  direction.  The  number  of 
young  women  who  come  to  college  having  had  no  educational  physical  exer- 
cise is  something  that  has  surprised  me.  The  percentage  of  seven  hundred 
students  receiving  some  such  training  is  twenty-nine ;  but  as  nine  per  cent 
had  their  training  in  private  gymnasiums,  only  twenty  per  cent  reported 
school  work.  Of  this  twenty  per  cent  not  more  than  one  per  cent  had  work 
which  was  sufficiently  well  conducted  to  require  a  gymnastic  suit.  The  others 
exercised  in  ordinary  dress.  In  the  year  1883-4  the  percentage  was  twenty- 
nine,  the  same  as  the  percentage  of  the  whole  ;  in  1888-9  forty-nine  per  cent 
claimed  to  have  had  gymnastic  work,  which  shows  recent  increase  of  interest 
in  the  subject.  Nine  per  cent,  however,  worked  privately,  instead  of  in  school, 


6i 

and  three  per  cent  had  work  which  was  of  no  value.  These  facts  may  be 
taken  fairly  to  represent  the  physical  education  now  given  to  girls  in  the  best 
schools  of  the  United  States ;  that  is,  sixty-three  per  cent  of  the  school-girls 
have  no  attention  whatever  paid  to  physical  training.  Only  ten  students  of 
this  thirty-seven  per  cent  of  seven  hundred  had  their  work  under  the  direction 
of  a  physician,  or  were  examined  by  a  physician  before  undertaking  it.  Yet, 
in  making  a  diagnosis  of  the  heart  and  in  examining  the  back  for  asymmetries, 
I  find  that  the  proportion  having  organic  heart  disease  and  lateral  spinal  cur- 
vature, as  well  as  other  defects,  is  the  same  among  those  who  have  had  gym- 
nastics (school  or  private)  as  among  those  who  have  not.  Such  conditions 
require  special  attention.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  indicates  that  whatever 
system  is  adopted  by  the  public  schools,  it  is  necessary,  hand  in  hand  with  it, 
to  have  a  medical  examiner,  who  shall  be  a  competent  physical  diagnostician, 
and  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  examine  the  pupils  before  they  take  any  gym- 
nastic work. 

Dr.  HARTWELL.  —  Those  physicians  who  have  seen  many  cases  of  curva- 
ture of  the  spine  would  say,  I  think,  that  a  large  percentage  of  the  cases  are  fur- 
nished from  among  school  children.  You  might  almost  say  that  such  deformities 
are  promoted  by  school  habits,  improper  desks,  bad  positions  —  especially  in 
writing  and  drawing.  For  a  good  many  years  it  has  been  a  rule  in  Sweden 
for  the  government  to  appoint  a  physician  as  medical  officer,  to  examine  the 
scholars  in  the  schools  a  stated  number  of  times  during  the  year.  The  school 
physician's  report  is  made  to  the  Department  of  Education.  This  officer  is 
superior  to  the  teachers  of  the  school.  If  he  finds  pupils  puny,  anaemic, 
hectic,  or  otherwise  unfitted  for  the  ordinary  school  work,  he  has  the  power 
to  say  this  child  has  too  much  school  work,  or  this  child  must  have  no  home 
lessons,  or  he  must  stay  out  altogether,  or  do  so  and  so.  If  he  finds  physical 
deformity ;  if  he  finds  a  child  with  a  beginning  of  scholiosis,  or  curvature  of 
the  spine,  or  with  any  other  affection  which  should  prevent  him  from  taking 
the  regular  gymnastic  exercises,  he  forbids  the  child  to  take  such  exercises. 
If  the  child,  in  his  judgment,  should  have  special  medical  gymnastics,  the 
teachers  in  many  schools  are  so  well  trained  that  they  know  how  to  give  the 
medical  gymnastics.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  Royal  Central 
Gymnastic  Institute  in  Stockholm  is  the  best  school  for  training  teachers  of 
gymnastics  in  the  world.  It  will  be  seen  from  what  I  have  said  that  Sweden 
has  already  adopted  a  system  of  medical  supervision  for  schools  such  as 
Dr.  Putnam  regards  to  be  necessary. 

QUESTION.  —  Does  that  medical  inspector  have  the  power  to  inquire 
whether  these  deformities  are  caused  by  school  work  or  by  something  out 
of  school  ? 

Dr.  HARTWELL.  —  I  think  he  has  power  to  review  all  questions. 

Adjourned. 


62 


Efjtrfc  Session, 


The  conference  met  Saturday,  November  30,  at  10  A.M.,  and 
was  called  to  order  by  Dr.  Harris.  The  first  paper  was  read  by 
D.  A.  Sargent,  M.D.,  of  Harvard  University. 

THE  SYSTEM   OF    PHYSICAL  TRAINING  AT  THE 
HEMENWAY   GYMNASIUM. 

BY  D.  A.  SARGENT,  M.D. 

IN  order  that  I  may  give  you  a  comprehensive  idea  of  the 
system  of  Physical  Training  pursued  at  the  Hemenway  Gym- 
nasium, it  will  be  necessary  to  refer  at  the  outset  to  its  history 
and  development. 

As  this  is  closely  connected  with  my  own  experience,  I  shall 
be  obliged  to  give  you  a  brief  autobiography. 

In  the.  falUjf-i^Q-JLaccepted^  position  as  Director  of  the 
Gymnasium  at  Bowdoin  College,  Brunswick,  Me. 

At  that  time  I  began  to  make  measurements  of  students,  and 
to  observe  the  differences  in  size,  strength,  and  development 
that  characterized  different  habits  and  conditions  of  life. 

Two  years  later  attendance  at  the  gymnasium  was  made  com- 
pulsory to  all  classes,  and  I  was  called  upon  to  devise  a  system 
of  exercises  that  would  be  at  once  efficient,  progressive,  and 
popular. 

In  thinking  this  matter  over  I  could  not  shut  out  from  my 
mind  the  marked  difference  in  physique  of  the  men  who  had 
come  under  my  observation.  Some  of  them  were  six  feet  in 
height,  and  weighed  over  two  hundred  pounds ;  others  had  a 
stature  less  than  five  feet  and  weighed  under  one  hundred 
pounds.  Some  could  lift  a  thousand  jpoumisjand  push  their 
weight  up  between  the  parallel  bars  from  twenty  to  forty 


63 

'times,  while  others  could  not  lift  one-tenth  of  this  amount  or 
push  their  weight  up  once. 

Had  these  young  men  been  required  to  pass  a  physical  ex- 
amination and  come  up  to  a  certain  physical  standard  before 
entering  college,  the  task  of  devising  a  scheme  of  appropriate 
exercises  would  have  been  a  simpler  one. 

To  expect  that  a  class  of  individuals,  varying  between  these 
extremes,  could  be  grouped  together  and  given  the  same  kind 
of  exercise  with  any  hope  of  benefiting  all  seemed  to  me  little 
less  than  absurd.  Yet  this  was  the  Dio  Lewis  plan,  and  I  had 
no  other  system  before  me,  in  America,  as  a  guide  at  that 
time. 

In  looking  over  the  records  of  the  students  I  had  examined 
I  found  that  the  young  men  who  had  been  accustomed  to  walk 
long  distances  to  and  from  school,  and  to  spend  certain  portions 
of  the  year  doing  manual  labor  on  farms,  in  mills,  lumber  yards, 
etc.,  generally  showed  a  superior  physique,  unless  the  work  had 
been  excessive  and  begun  at  too  early  a  period.  Moreover,  I 
found  that  the  young  men  who  had  been  accustomed  to  special 
employment,  such  as  blacksmithing,  wood-chopping,  milking 
cows,  etc.,  showed  a  special  development  in  certain  parts  of  the 
body,  as  the  forearm,  upper-arm,  and  back,  while  they  were 
lacking  in  the  development  of  other  parts. 

In  this  way  I  went  through  the  list,  marking  the  peculiar 
development  that  seemed  to  accompany  the  special  occupations 
and  exercises  to  which  the  boys  had  given  attention  before  com- 
ing to  college. 

The  conclusion  that  I  reached  was  this :  If  actual  labor  will 
produce  such  good  physical  results  in  certain  directions,  why 
will  not  a  system  of  exercises_in Jthe,  .gymnasium,  resembling 
actual  labor,  accomplish  the  same  result  in  opposite  directions, 
and  in  this  way  be  made  to  supplement  the  deficiencies  of  one's 
occupation,  and  to  develop  him  where  he  is  weak. 

With  this  idea  predominating,  I  began  to  work  for  its  attain- 
ment in  1871. 

The  nearest  approach  that  I  could  make  to  the  realization  of 
this  idea  at  Bowdoin  College,  for  lack  of  funds,  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  lot  of  crude  pulley-weight  appliances  of  different 


64 

/  heights  and  weights,  to  which  I  introduced  the  students  as  a 
class  exercise. 

Pulling  window-weights  over  a  wooden  roller  by  aid  of  an 
iron  handle,  in  a  cold,  unfinished  building,  four  times  a  week, 
did  not  impress  the  faculty  as  an  exercise  that  would  be  likely 
\to  add  to  the  popularity  of  the  required  system,  and  I  think 
that  they  had  some  doubt  as  to  the  expediency  of  letting  an 
jinstructor,  "  who  was  only  a  freshman,"  try  the  experiment. 
,The  experiment  was  tried,  however,  and  it  proved  so  successful 
that  I  was  able  to  leave  the  department  the  next  year  in  charge 
of  assistants,  who  were  also  students,  and  spend  three  months 
in  New  Haven,  trying  to  introduce  the  same  system  at  Yale 
College. 

I  mention  this  fact  in  order  that  you  may  see  that  the  success 
of  the  new  movement  was  largely  due  to  the  peculiarity  of  the 
exercise,  and  not  to  any  personal  force  or  character  behind  it. 
In  fact,  I  now  know  that  I  hit  upon  one  of  the  great  principles 
that  should  govern  all  artificial  exercise,  without  knowing  it. 
(Of  this  I  shall  speak  later.) 

I  ought  to  add  that  wejised^he  \vpoden  dumb-bells  and  In- 
dian-clubs  to  alternate  with  the  pulley-weight  appliances   in 
\  class  exercises. 

-  For  the  result  of  this  system  of  exercises  upon  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  students  at  Bowdoin,  I  must  refer  my 
hearers  to  the  tables  published  Jn_Mr.  Blaiki^s  admirable  little 
book^  "Jrlow  to  get  Strong. ' ' 

After  the  completion  "of  my  medical  studies,  in  1 878,  I  elabo- 
rated my  old  system  of  measurements,  and  had  the  first  patterns 
of  my  long-contemplated  developing  appliances  constructed. 

/These  consist  of  what  are  familiarly  known  as  chest-weights, 
jphest-expanders  and  developers,  quarter-circles,  leg-machines, 
;  finger-machines,  etc.,  to  the  number  of  forty  different  pieces. 

These  appliances  were  first  used  in  my  private  institution  in 
New  York  City  in  1878,  and  were  placed  in  the  Hemenway  Gym- 
nasium in  1879.  It  would  seem  that  this  style  of  apparatus  met 
a  long-felt  want,  for  it  immediately  sprang  into  popular  favor. 

As  it  had  been  publicly  announced  that  these  appliances  were 
not  patented,  but  were  given  to  the  public  for  educational  pur- 


65 

poses,  they  were  soon  copied  in  one  form  or  another  by  various 
manufacturers,  and  have  since  been  generally  introduced  into 
the  school,  college,  athletic  club,  and  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  gymnasia  throughout  this  country,  and  in  different 
parts  of  Europe. 

To  what  extent  this  style  of  apparatus  is  now  used  in  the 
United  States  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  some  of  it  has 
been  put  into  three  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  institutions,  rep- 
resenting a  total  membership  of  over  one  hundred  thousand. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  system  to  which  I  invite  your 
attention  is  not  a  thing  of  recent  growth,  but  one  that  has  been 
undergoing  a  process  of  slow  development  for  the  past  twenty 
years. 

That  you  may  understand  what  it  is  in  its  present  form,  as 
carried  out  at  Harvard  University,  let  me  ask  you  to  follow  me 
through  one  of  the  physical  examinations  of  a  student,  and  see 
what  we  do  for  him.  Every  student  who  enters  the  University 
is  entitled  to  an  examination,  and  eighty-seven  per  cent  of  the 
whole  number  avail  themselves  of  this  privilege. 

As  soon  as  the  student  presents  himself  at  the  director's 
office  (which  is  done  by  application  and  appointment),  he  is 
given  a  history  blank,  which  he  fills  out,  giving  his  birthplace, 
nativity  of  parents,  occupation  of  father,  resemblance  to  par- 
ents, natural  heritage,  general  state  of  health,  and  a  list  of  the 
diseases  he  has  had,  all  of  which  information  is  absolutely  nec- 
essary in  order  for  the  examiner  to  put  a  correct  interpretation 
upon  the  observations  to  follow.  The  student  is  then  asked  to 
make  certain  tests  of  the  muscular  strength  of  the  different 
parts  of  his  body,  and  to  try  the  capacity  of  his  lungs. 

He  then  passes  into  the  measuring  room,  and  has  his  weight, 
height,  chest-girth,  and  fifty  other  items  taken.  His  heart  and 
lungs  are  then  examined  before  and  after  exercise,  and  a  careful 
record  made  of  the  condition  of  the  skin,  muscles,  spine,  etc., 
which  the  tape  measure  fails  to  give. 

All  the  items  taken  are  then  plotted  on  a  chart,  made  from 

I  several  thousand  measurements,  and  the  examiner  is  then  able 

/to  know  the  relative  standing  of  this  individual  as  compared 

with,  others  for  every  dimension  taken,  also  his  deviation  from 


66 

symmetry  and  the  parts  which  are  in  special  need  of  develop- 
ment. 

To  confirm  the  plotting  of  the  chart,  and  to  awaken  in  the 
young  man  a  genuine  interest  in  his  physique  a  photograph  of 
each  student  desiring  it  is  taken  in  three  positions,  and  pre- 
served for  comparison  with  those  to  be  taken  of  him  later. 

From  the  data  thus  procured  a  special  order  of  appropriate 
exercises  is  made  out  for  this  student  with  specifications  as  to 
the  movements  and  apparatus  he  may  best  use.  At  the  present 
time  this  special  order  consists  for  most  students  of  an  illus- 
trated handbook,  in  which  the  apparatus,  the  weights  for  it,  and 
the  times  to  use  it  are  carefully  prescribed,  together  with  such 
suggestions  as  to  exercise,  diet,  sleep,  bathing,  clothing,  etc,,  as 
will  best  meet  the  needs  of  the  individual  under  considera- 
tion. 

Now  I  think  it  will  be  admitted  by  all  thoughtful  persons  that 
•one-half  the  battle  for  mental  education  has  been  won  when  you 
arouse  in  a  boy  a  genuine  love  for  learning.  So  one-half  the 
struggle  for  physical  training  has  been  won  when  he  can  be 
induced  to  take  a  genuine  interest  in  his  bodily  condition  —  to 
want  to  remedy  his  defects,  and  to  pride  himself  on  the  purity 
of  his  skin,  the  firmness  of  his  muscles,  and  the  uprightness  of 
\  his  figure. 

Whether  the  young  man  chooses  afterwards  to  use  the  gym- 
nasium, to  run,  to  row,  to  play  ball,  or  saw  wood  for  the  purpose 
of  improving  his  physical  condition  matters  little,  provided  he 
accomplishes  that  object. 

The  modern  gymnasium,  however,  offers  facilities  for  building 
up  the  body  that  are  not  excelled  by  any  other  system  of  exer- 
Vcise.  The  introduction  of  the  new  developing  appliances  has 
^pened  up  the  possibility  of  the  gymnasium  to  thousands  to 
whom  it  was  formerly  an  institution  of  doubtful  value.  The 
student  is  no  longer  compelled  to  compete  with  others  in  the 
'performance  of  feats  that  are  distasteful  to  him.  He  can  now 
^compete  with  Jiimself, — that  is,  with  his  own  physical  condition 
from  week  to  week,  and  from  month  to  month.  If  he  is  not 
strong  enough  to  lift  his  own  weight,  the  apparatus  can  be  ad- 
justed to_a  weight Jie  can-Hit.  If  he  is  weak  in  the  chest  or  the 


back,  he  can  spend  his  time  and  energy  in  strengthening  those 
parts  without  fear  of  strain  or  injury. 

In  fact,  he  can  work  for  an  hour,  going  from  one  piece  of 
apparatus  to  another,  keeping  always  within  the  circuit  of  his 
capacity,  and  adding  slowly  and  surely  to  his  general  strength 
and  powers  of  endurance.  If  the  heart  is  weak,  the  lung 
capacity  small,  the  liver  sluggish,  the  circulation  feeble,  or  the 
nervous  system  impaired,  etc.,  special  forms  of  exercise  can  be 
prescribed  to  meet  these  conditions. 

Gentle  running  is  usually  advised  as  a  constitutional  exercise 
for  all  of  those  who  can  take  it.  This  is  usually  severe  enough 
to  start  the  perspiration,  and  make  a  bath  of  some  kind  desira- 
ble. A  tepid  sponge  or  shower  bath  is  generally  advised ;  and 
in  my  opinion,  the  bath  which  regularly  follows  the  exercise  at 
the  gymnasium,  and  the  habit  of  bathing  established  thereby,  is 
almost  as  valuable  as  the  exercise  itself. 

After  a  period  of  six  months  or  more,  the  student  returns 
again  to  the  Director's  office,  and  has  another  examination,  in 
order  to  ascertain  what  improvement  he  has  made,  and  to  re- 
ceive any  new  suggestions. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  educational  part  of  the  system  of  physi- 
cal training  carried  on  at  the  Hemenway  Gymnasium. 

The  system  of  athletics  and  heavy  gymnastics  carried  on  at 
the  college  during  term  time  the  authorities  are  in  no  way  re- 
sponsible for.  These  are  managed  by  the  students  themselves 
through  their  different  athletic  organizations.  The  faculty  ex- 
ercise a  conservative  influence,  in  requiring  every  man  to  be 
examined  and  get  a  certificate  from  the  Director  of  the  Gymna- 
sium before  he  can  enter  as  a  competitor  in  athletic  contests. 
By  taking  this  precaution,  many  a  student,  whose  zeal  for  ath- 
letics was  in  excess  of  his  ability,  has  been  undoubtedly  saved 
from  injury,  and  the  character  of  the  sport  has  been  maintained. 
The  authorities  believe  that  athletic  sports,  kept  within  bounds 
and  carefully  regulated,  are  a  valuable  adjunct  to  our  system  of 
physical  training,  and  they  are  constantly  making  endeavors  to 
increase  Harvard  facilities  in  this  direction. 

Some  of  us  believe  it  is  more  to  the  credit  of  a  university  to 
have  one  hundred  men  who  can  do  a  creditable  performance  in 


68 

running,  rowing,  ball-playing,  etc.,  than  to  have  one  man  who 
can  break  a  record,  or  a  team  that  can  always  win  the  cham- 
pionship. 

The  great  aim  of  the  gymnasium  is  to  improve  the  physical 
condition  of  the  mass  of  our  students,  and  to  give  them  as 
much  health,  strength,  and  stamina  as  possible,  to  enable  them 
to  perform  the  duties  that  await  them  after  leaving  college. 
How  well  this  work  is  being  accomplished  I  hope  to  be  able  to 
show  at  some  future  time.  Just  at  present  I  will  only  make 
one  statement,  which  has  been  made  before,  but  which  some  of 
you  may  not  have  heard. 

We  have  to-day  on  our  record  books  at  Harvard  the  names 
of  two  hundred  and  forty-five  students  whose  test  of  general 
strength  (of  arms,  chest,  back,  legs,  lungs,  etc.)  surpasses  the 
test  of  the  strongest  man  in  1880.  (The  Gymnasium  was 
opened  that  year,  it  will  be  understood,  and  few  of  the  men 
then  in  college  had  been  in  the  habit  of  taking  systematic 
exercise.)  To-day  we  have  over  twelve  hundred  men  who  at- 
tend the  gymnasium  more  or  less  regularly. 

While  the  number  of  the  men  coming  to  the  University  has 
increased  fifty  per  cent  during  the  past  ten  years,  the  number 
using  the  gymnasium  has  increased  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
per  cent  during  the  same  interval. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  work  the  University  is  doing 
in  the  way  of  physical  training  is  at  its  Summer  School  for 
Teachers. 

This  has  only  been  established  three  years,  but  within  that 
time  we  have  had  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  pupils.  The  most 
of  them  were  teachers  in  physical  exercises  at  colleges  and  sec- 
ondary schools  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  Among  the  list 
were  several  physicians,  thirty-two  college  graduates,  army  offi- 
cers, school  superintendents  and  principals,  and  many  teachers 
and  professors  in  other  branches,  who  attended  for  their  own 
improvement  or  in  the  interest  of  the  institution  which  they 
represented. 

The  list  of  instructors  last  summer  comprised  seven  physi- 
cians, six  specialists,  and  seven  student  assistants.  The  theo- 
retical work  of  the  course  comprised  lectures  and  recitations  in 


69 

the  Elements  of  Applied  Anatomy  and  Physiology  and  in  Per- 
sonal Hygiene ;  also  lectures  and  practical  talks  on  Anthro- 
pology, Anthropometry,  Physical  Diagnosis,  Methods  of  Pre- 
scribing Exercise  for  the  Individual,  Physical  Exercise  in  the 
Treatment  of  Spinal  Curvature,  Testing  for  Normal  Vision  and 
Hearing,  and  Massage  and  its  applications. 

The  practical  work  of  the  course  consisted  in  Free  Move- 
ments, Calisthenics,  Light  Gymnastics,  Marching,  Methods  of 
Conducting  Squad,  Class  and  Division  Exercises,  Gymnastic 
Games,  Heavy  Gymnastics,  Track  and  Field  Athletics,  Physi- 
cal Examinations,  Practice  in  Measuring  and  the  Use  of  Testing 
and  Developing  Appliances,  Boxing,  Fencing,  Swimming,  and 
Voice  Training. 

This  school  is  restricted  in  its  usefulness  by  the  little  time 
that  can  be  devoted  to  it.  But  as  most  of  the  teachers  have 
had  considerable  experience,  and  are  tolerably  well  trained  by 
preparatory  study  and  physical  exercises  before  coming  to  the 
school,  the  amount  of  efficiency  acquired  is  greater  than  would 
at  first  seem  possible. 

At  my  private  gymnasium  (which  was  established  for  the 
Harvard  Annex)  I  have  had  a  normal  class  for  women  for  the 
past  eight  years,  and  it  was  in  this  humble  institution  that  most 
of  the  teachers  now  directing  the  gymnasiums  of  our  large  col- 
leges for  women  were  trained. 

Now  that  the  subject  of  physical  education  is  before  the  pub- 
lic, and  a  popular  sentiment  seems  to  be  setting  in  this  direction, 
there  is  not  a  little  danger  that  it  may  lose  its  force,  or  be  turned 
in  wrong  directions  by  the  over-zealousness  of  some  of  its  teach- 
ers and  advocates,  and  the  extravagant  claims  of  a  certain  class 
in  the  community  who  wish  to  reap  a  pecuniary  profit  from  the 
movement. 

When  gymnasium  instructors  arrange  a  new  order  of  exer- 
cises and  claim  to  have  invented  a  system  of  physical  training, 
when  machine  companies  and  manufacturing  establishments 
issue  papers  and  books  of  instruction  in  physical  exercises,  and 
the  apostles  of  physical  culture  who  have  no  gymnasiums  make  a 
virtue  of  necessity,  and  claim  that  change  of  clothing,  bathing,  and 
the  use  of  apparatus  are  not  necessary  for  the  perfect  develop- 


ment  of  the  body,  it  is  well  for  those  having  the  best  interests 
of  the  rising  generation  at  heart  to  ask  themselves  a  few  ques- 
tions. 

Has  the  experience  of  other  nations,  and  the  history  and 
biographies  of  peoples  and  individuals  distinguished  for  health, 
strength,  and  powers  of  endurance,  taught  us  nothing  ? 

Have  the  researches  of  the  anatomist,  physiologist,  and  scien- 
tist during  the  past  century  thrown  no  light  on  this  subject? 
In  other  words,  have  we  discovered  no  broad  underlying  princi- 
ples upon  which  the  subject  of  physical  education  rests  ? 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  made  great  progress  in  this 
direction,  and  some  of  us  are  working  according  to  principles 
which,  if  not  true,  should,  in  the  interest  of  the  cause,  be  re- 
futed. 

I  have  given  some  idea  of  the  practical  working  of  our  sys- 
tem at  Cambridge ;  now  let  me  invite  your  attention  to  a  con- 
sideration of  some  of  the  theories  and  principles  upon  which  it 
is  founded. 

"  The  characteristic  physiological  property  of  muscular  tissue, 
and  that  for  which  it  is  employed  in  the  body,"  says  Martin,1 
"is  the  faculty  possessed  by  its  fibres  of  shortening  forcibly 
under  certain  circumstances."  This  property  is  called  contrac- 
tility, and  upon  the  full  performance  of  this  function  depends 
not  only  the  healthy  condition  of  the  muscles,  but  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  body  with  which  they  are  connected. 

Now,  what  are  the  circumstances  under  which  a  muscle  per- 
forms its  greatest  contraction  ? 

ist.  " There  must  be  a  succession  of  strong  and  oft-repeated 
\  stimuli.  2d.  The  muscle  must  have  a  load  to  carry  or  resist- 
*s  ance  opposed  to  its  shortening." 

This  can  be  illustrated  by  the  experiment  so  often  conducted 
in  the  physiological  laboratory.  Take  a  muscle  without  a  weight 
attached  to  it,  and  apply  a  stimulus.  The  muscle  will  contract 
say  a  quarter  of  an  inch.  Now  apply  a  weight  of  one  pound  to 
it  and  apply  the  same  stimulus.  The  muscle  will  contract  half 
an  inch.  Attach  a  still  heavier  weight,  say  two  pounds,  and 
apply  the  same  stimulus,  and  the  muscle  will  contract  one  inch. 

1  "The  Human  Body"  (Chapter  x.),  by  H.  Newell  Martin,  D.Sc.,  M.A.,  M.D. 


•  And  so  the  experiment  could  be  carried  on  until  a  weight  was 

;  attached  which  would  cause  the  contractions  of  the  muscles  to 

1  be  less  and  less  until  they  finally  ceased.  "  So  that  up  to  a  cer- 
tain limit,  resistance  to  the  shortening  of  a  muscle  makes  it 
more  able  to  shorten,  and  the  greater  extension  of  the  muscle 
due  to  the  greater  resistance  opposed  to  its  shortening  puts  it 

jinto  a  state  in  which  it  is  able  to  contract  more  powerfully."     „— 
1    Upon  the  interpretation  of  this  simple  physiological  fact  de- 
fends the  foundation  of  two  great  systems  of  physical  training 

,  ' — one  faction  advocating  that  the  antagonizing  muscles  in  free 
movements,  without  apparatus,  furnish  all  the  resistance  that  is 
necessary ;  while  the  other  faction  claim  that  the  resistance 
afforded  by  opposing  muscles  is  not  sufficient,  and  that  weights 
of  some  kind,  or  apparatus,  is  necessary  to  bring  out  the  work- 
ing force  of  the  muscle  used. 

I  believe  that  the  last  conclusion  is  the  correct  one.  The 
study  of  the  human  skeleton  as  a  whole  and  in  parts,  the  pecu- 
liar formation  of  the  tuberosities  and  prominences  of  the  bones, 
and  the  size  and  strength  of  the  muscles  attached  to  them, 
all  go  to  show  that  the  limbs  were  not  only  designed  to  be 

I  moved,  but  to  help  man  bear  his  burden,  overcome  obstacles, 
and  fight  his  way  in  the  world. 

Where  do  we  look  for  the  best  specimens  of  physical  develop- 
ment but  to  those  engaged  in  all-round,  vigorous,  manual  labor  ? 
Yes,  as  ^faclaten  says,  "exercise,  which  is  voluntary  labor, 
must  resemble  actual  labor,  if  it  be  desired  to  obtain  from  it 
the  physical  advantages  which  actual  labor  bestows." 

The  work  done  by  a  muscle   in   a  given   contraction  when 

I  it  lifts  a  weight  vertically  against  gravity  is  measured  by  the 
\weight  moved  multiplied  by  the  distance  through  which  it  is 
(moved.  This  test  furnishes  the  best  means  of  judging  of  the 
ipfficiency  of  a  system  of  exercises. 

We  saw  in  the  laboratory  experiment  that  when  the  muscle 
simply  lifted  its  own  weight  that  it  did  no  work,  and  that  noth- 
ing was  accomplished  when  it  tried  to  lift  a  weight  too  heavy 
for  it,  but  that  there  was  an  intermediate  weight  that  it 
lifted  to  the  greatest  height,  and  did  the  greatest  amount  of 
work. 


72 

What  is  true  of  this  single  muscle  is  true  of  all  the  muscles 
of  the  body ;  there  is  a  certain  weight  with  which  the  different 
groups  of  muscles  can  do  the  most  effective  service  in  a  given 
time.  If  the  weight  is  too  light  or  too  heavy,  the  best  effect 
of  the  exercise  is  not  realized. 

s  This  may  be  illustrated  by  the  familiar  use  of  the  chest- 
(  weights  (so-called).  If  you  go  through  the  movements  without 
any  weight,  the  exercise  is  insipid.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you 
load  the  boxes  up  to  their  full  capacity,  you  will  find  that  there 
are  only  one  or  two  movements  that  you  can  do,  and  these  only 
for  a  minute  or  so.  Now,  if  you  have  carefully  gauged  your 
Istrength  to  about  five  pounds  (which  is,  perhaps,  the  average 
weight  used  in  these  appliances),  you  will  find  that  you  can  go 
'through  the  full  set  of  exercises  (comprising  some  forty  or  fifty 
separate  movements)  and  feel  that  you  have  accomplished  some- 
thing that  will  be  a  benefit  to  you.  This  statement  is  equally 
1|rue  of  all  the  different  developing  appliances  found  in  a  well- 
equipped  gymnasium  ;  and  to  the  fact  that  our  modern  appara- 
tus can  be  adjusted  to  the  strength  of  the  strong  and  the  weak- 
ness of  the  weak  may  be  attributed  a  large  part  of  the  value 
and  popularity  of  those  thriving  institutions. 

But  there  is  another  principle  now  taken  advantage  of,  to 
which  the  modern  gymnasium  owes  a  great  part  of  its  effi- 
ciency. In  view  of  the  tendency  of  the  times  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  it  is  a  valuable  one. 

In  primitive  races  individuals  of  the  same  tribe  bear  a  close 
resemblance  to  each  other.  As  they  progress  in  civilization 
difference  of  function  begins  to  work  a  difference  in  structure  ; 
and  we  begin  to  get  a  marked  variation  in  size,  form,  and 
feature. 

In  highly  civilized  communities  the  minute  division  of  labor 
carries  this  variation  still  further  ;  so  that  it  is  not  only  possible 
in  many  cases  to  distinguish  individuals  by  their  calling,  but  the 
particular  branch  of  work  in  which  they  are  engaged  can  be 
easily  determined  by  its  influence  upon  their  physical  structure. 
In  other  words,  men  are  moulded  by  their  trades  and  occupa- 
tions, and  many  of  the  diseases  with  which  they  are  afflicted 
arise  from  physical  defects  due  to  faulty  positions  and  want  of 


73 

appropriate  exercise.  Perhaps  no  class  in  the  community  have 
their  physical  characteristics  more  marked  than  the  student- 
class.  The  type  may  be  distinguished  by  a  drooping  head,  flat 
chest,  hollow  back,  and  constricted  ribs  just  over  the  stomach. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  look  for  the  causes  of  these  defects. 
They  are  faulty  positions  while  studying,  pressure  of  the  desk 
against  the  body,  the  constriction  of  clothing  during  the  grow- 
ing period,  the  relaxed  state  of  certain  muscles,  and  the  over- 
strained condition  of  others. 

Most  occupations,  including  that  of  the  student,  tend  to  over- 
use the  flexor  muscles  and  to  compress  and  constrict  the  body, 
thus  lessening  its  internal  capacity  and  interfering  with  the 
functions  of  important  organs.  Thus  the  resistance  of  the 
clothing,  weights  lifted  and  borne  on  the  back  or  shoulders,  and 
even  the  use  of  heavy  dumb-bells  for  health's  sake,  all  tend  to 
force  the  ribs  downward  and  lessen  the  diameter  of  the  thorax. 
To  remedy  this  evil  a  system  of  artificial  exercise  is  necessary. 

Just  here  we  touch  upon  a  principle  that  has  escaped  the 
attention  of  most  teachers.  If  this  deformity  is  brought  about 
by  the  natural  action  of  the  muscles,  that  is,  by  their  acting 
centripetally  from  their  origin  to  their  insertions,  surely  the 
remedy  is  to  make  them  act  centrifugally  from  their  insertions 
to  their  origins.  By  grasping  a  bar  or  a  pair  of  rings  above  the 
head,  the  parts  where  the  muscles  are  inserted  become  fixed,  and 
if  the  muscles  contract,  the  parts  from  which  they  originated 
must  move.  In  this  case  all  the  diameters  of  the  thorax  are 
increased  and  the  chest  capacity  enlarged.  In  this  principle 
lies  the  value  of  the  rings,  trapeze,  ladders,  parallel  and  horizon- 
tal bars,  and  in  fact  all  of  the  climbing  appurtenances  to  those 
who  are  able  to  use  them.  By  the  invention  of  the  chest-ex- 
pander, chest-developer,  quarter-circle,  high  pulleys,  and  inclined 
planes,  travelling  parallels,  and  similar  apparatus,  the  same 
principle  can  be  applied  by  any  one,  however  weak,  and  the 
same  result  can  be  accomplished.  It  requires  a  little  more 
time,  but  the  effect  is  likely  to  be  more  durable. 

By  the  use  of  the  pulley-weight  system,  resistance  can  be 
applied  to  any  part  of  the  body  from  any  direction.  In  this 
peculiar  property  lies  its  great  value  as  a  means  of  enlarging 


74 

^ 

the  thoracic  cavity  and  counteracting  the  cramping  and  con- 
stricting tendencies  of  modern  occupations. 

I  have  dwelt  upon  these  principles  at  some  length  because  I 
have  reason  to  believe  they  have  not  been  well  understood  by 
persons  interested  in  the  subject.  Some  of  the  other  theories 
that  have  guided  rrfe  in  formulating  a  system  of  exercises  I  shall 
state  briefly  in  the  form  of  a  summary,  together  with  those  I 
have  just  mentioned. 

As  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  they  are  based  on 
sound  physiological  principles/ 

(1)  The  person  should  be  sufficiently  interested  in  the  exer- 
cise to  give  it  his  attention  in  order  to  secure  the  necessary 
volitional  power  to  start  the  movement.     Whether  the  exercise 
is  interesting  in  itself  is  a  matter  of  little  consequence. 

(2)  There  should  be  a  weight  or  resistance  to  overcome  in 
xorder  to  bring  out  the  working  force  of  the  muscle.     In  using  a 

(^    weight  the  muscle  gradually  acquires  the  force  with  which  it 
jtries  to  contract. 

(3)  The  exercise  must  be  performed  with  sufficient  vigor  and 
rapidity  to  engage  the  energetic  contraction  of  the  muscles  em- 
ployed.    When  this  is  done,  old  tissue  is  broken  down,  and  its 
place  is  supplied  with  new  material  in  increased  quantity,  thus 
augmenting  the  size  and  strength  of  the  muscles. 

The  brain  gains  the  power  and  energy  which  the  exercise 
requires  it  to  put  forth. 

(4)  Weak   parts   must   first   be  strengthened,   and    then   as 
many   muscles   as   possible  ^rnust   be    brought   into   action   in 
order  to  secure   a  full-orbed  and  harmonious  development  of 
the  whole  body.     One-sided  development  is  usually  attained  by 
robbing  some  other  part  of  its  just  share  of  the  body's  nutri- 
ment. 

Most  persons  in  their  daily  occupations  use  the  flexor  muscles 
more  than  the  extensors  —  thereby  cramping  the  vital  organs 
and  interfering  with  their  functions.  To  remedy  this  tendency 
the  muscles  should  be  made  to  act  from  the  centre  as  far  as  pos- 
sible in  all  forms  of  artificial  exercise. 

(5)  A  sufficient  number  of  muscles  should  be  called  into  action 
at  one  time  to  stimulate  the  action  of  the  heart  and  lungs  and  in- 


75 

crease  the  circulation  and  respiration.  This  is  one  of  the  most 
important  considerations  to  bear  in  mind  in  regard  to  exer- 
cise. To  keep  up  this  increased  respiratory  activity,  and  to  aid 
the  heart  in  removing  the  waste  material  and  hastening  forward 
the  new,  the  limbs  and  walls  of  the  chest  must  be  absolutely 
free  from  any  ligatures  or  constrictions.  The  slightest  interfer- 
ence with  the  action  of  the  respiratory  muscles  at  this  time  em- 
barrasses the  functions  of  the  lungs  and  heart.  This  is  the 
reason  why  loose  clothing  is  always  advised  for  exercise. 

(6)  As  a  latent  period  precedes  the  contraction  of  a  muscle, 
so  a  momentary  period  of  rest  should  as  far  as  possible  precede 
movement  in  exercise.     This  is  best  secured  where  there  is  an 
alternation  in  the  movements,  as  in  walking,  running,  rowing, 
etc.     All  tetanized  movements,  such  as  holding  weights,  attitu- 
dinizing, standing  or  sitting  in  a  constrained  position,  etc.,  tend 
to  impair  the  tone  of  the  muscles  by  interfering  with  the  nutri- 
tion of  both"  muscles  and  nerves. 

(7)  The  exercise  of  the  young  should  be  of  such  a  composite 
nature  as  to  bring  about  the  co-operation  and  co-ordination  of 
the  muscles.     This  involves  principally  the  training  of  the  cen- 
tral nerve  system.     All  gymnastic  sports  and  athletic  games 
that  require  skill,  dexterity,  coolness,  courage,  and  presence  of 
mind,  are  included  in  this  list,  and  are  exceedingly  valuable  to 
any  system  of  physical  training,  as  adjuncts  in  the  development 
of  character. 

(8)  All  vital  processes  depend  largely  upon  the  maintenance 
of  animal  heat.     But  animal  heat  is  now  known  to  be  generated 
in  the  blood  while  passing  through  the  muscles,  and  not  in 
the  lungs,  as  was  once  supposed.     The  full  contraction  of  the 
muscles  greatly  aids  this  function,  and  helps  to  force  the  warm 
blood  through  the  tissues  and  back  again  to  the  heart. 

(9)  In  order  to  realize  the  best  results  from  physical  exercise 
and  keep  up  the  general  nutrition  of  the   body,  all  muscular 
effort  should  be  followed  by  a  bath  or  vigorous  stroking  and 
rubbing. 

(10)  In  every  kind  of  physical  exercise  the  qualities  at  first 
required  are  the   qualities   at  length  developed.     Thus,  if  the 
exercise  requires  strength,  strength  will  be  the  result ;  if  cour- 


76 

age  is  exacted,  courage  will  be  the  outcome ;  if  quickness, 
quickness ;  and  so  through  the  whole  range  of  faculties  exer- 
cised. 

Knowing  what  is  desired,  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  prescribe 
the  appropriate  training.  In  this  very  fact  lies  an  element  of 
danger,  which  it  is  well  for  us  to  consider.  There  should  be 
a  better  understanding  of  the  physiology  of  exercise,  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  supreme  value  of  unity  in  development,  and  more 
information  as  to  what  constitutes  the  normal  man  for  different 
races,  ages,  and  conditions  of  life. 

Until  these  questions  are  settled  there  will  continue  to  be 
the  widest  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  kind,  amount,  and 
place  of  physical  training  in  a  scheme  of  education.  The  pres- 
ent aspect  of  the  subject  in  Europe  and  in  this  country  fur- 
nishes illustrations  to  the  point. 

Germany,  tired  of  the  dull,  stereotyped  exercises  of  the 
Turnverein,  is  making  a  plea  for  sports  and  games ;  old  Eng- 
land and  our  New  England,  perplexed  with  athletics  run  wild, 
are  attempting  to  substitute  a  rational  system  of  exercise  for 
competitive  sports ;  while  France  and  Sweden  are  beginning 
to  realize  that  calisthenics  and  free  movements,  though  bene- 
ficial to  the  graces,  afford  little  or  no  exercise  as  such.  Yet 
these  are  the  nations  that  gave  us  our  first  ideas  on  the 
subject. 

What  America  most  needs  is  the  happy  combination  which 
the  European  nations  are  trying  to  effect :  the  strength-giving 
qualities  of  the  German  gymnasium,  the  active  and  energetic 
properties  of  the  English  sports,  the  grace  and  suppleness 
acquired  from  the  French  calisthenics,  and  the  beautiful  poise 
and  mechanical  precision  of  the  Swedish  free  movements, 
all  regulated,  systematized,  and  adapted  to  our  peculiar  needs 
and  institutions. 

The  highest  development  of  strength,  activity,  and  grace  is 
not  compatible  in  the  same  individual,  and  consequently  many 
persons  prefer  to  sacrifice  one  in  order  to  gain  the  other.  But 
robust,  vigorous  health  is  only  maintained  in  a  body  in  which 
life's  forces  are  well  adjusted  and  well  balanced. 


77 

The  discussion  was  opened  by  Walter  Channing,  M.D.,  as 
follows  :  — 

Dr.  CHANNING.  —  As  I  understand  the  subject  of  this  Conference  is  physi- 
cal training  in  schools,  I  shall  limit  my  remarks  to  that  subject.  I  suppose 
we  are  all  laboring  for  the  same  end,  yet  we  have  too  much  to  say  about 
systems.  Who,  I  may  ask,  can  lay  claim  to  any  special  system?  Is  not  the 
work  done  by  different  investigators  partly  founded  on  the  accumulated  expe- 
rience of  others  and  partly  on  their  own  ideas  ? 

Ling  was  the  man  who  adapted  rational  mechanical  movements  to  the 
principles  of  what  the  organism  demanded.  He  was  able  to  both  establish 
principles  and  put  them  to  the  best  of  successful  practice.  In  as  far  as  this, 
and  only  as  far,  are  we  bound  to  follow  him. 

The  questions  with  us  to-day  are :  ist,  What  are  the  principles  which  should 
guide  us  in  the  physical  training  of  children?  and  2d,  how  can  these  princi- 
ples be  applied?  We  saw  and  heard  yesterday  a  good  deal  of  the  application, 
but  little,  I  regret  to  say,  of  the  underlying  principles. 

We  had,  for  example,  exhibitions  of  the  " German,"  "  Swedish,"  and  "Ameri- 
can "  systems,  as  they  were  called,  though  I  should  be  more  inclined  to  call 
them  the  systems  of  a  German  gentleman  I  do  not  know  the  name  of,  Mr. 
Posse,  and  Mr.  Roberts,  late  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  Gym- 
nasium. They  were  all  admirable  in  many  ways,  and  yet  how  easy  it  is  for 
us  all  to  criticise  them. 

Some  of  the  exercises  were  too  hard  for  young  children,  especially  girls ; 
some  over-strained  the  attention,  others  were  too  heavy  and  woodeny,  and 
especially  too  great  prominence  was  given  to  a  high  degree  of  excellence, 
producing  an  almost  painful  tension,  it  seemed  to  me. 

Such  objections  as  these  could  be  multiplied,  and  more  specifically  stated, 
but  that  is  not  exactly  what  I  wish  to  bring  out. 

What  do  we  want  to  accomplish  ?  Let  us  remember  first  of  all  that  we  want 
to  take  a  lot  of  young,  immature,  active,  restless,  often  ill-nourished  little 
creatures,  and  big  ones  too,  for  that  matter,  not  classes  of  adults,  and  so 
guide  and  direct  them  that  the  existing  faulty  physical  conditions  may  be 
overcome  and  the  foundations  laid  for  future  physical  health. 

Let  me  pause  here  a  moment  to  lay  emphasis  on  the  necessity  for  such  a 
foundation.  Let  us  remember  that  a  correct  method  of  physical  training  is 
the  chief  means  by  which  we  may  hope  to  overcome  and  prevent  the  tendency, 
now  so  common  among  us,  to  mental  and  nervous  instability  and  degeneracy ; 
a  tendency,  I  may  say  in  passing,  due  to  no  one  cause,  but  excess  in  various 
directions. 

We  must  then  have  the  most  simple,  varied,  and  active  exercises  for  the 
youngest  children,  naturally  growing  harder  as  the  children  advance  in  years  ; 
and  we  must  have  plenty  of  oxygen  and  inspiring  surroundings,  otherwise  the 
solemnity  and  depression  of  the  school  will  deprive  them  of  much  of  the 
desired  benefit. 


78 

In  the  higher  schools  the  exercises  must  be  neither  between,  on  top  of, 
nor  under  the  desks,  but  in  a  well-equipped  gymnasium.  It  is  useless  to  think 
of  avoiding  expense  in  this  direction,  for  the  idea  of  progression  in  work  can- 
not otherwise  be  maintained,  and  the  whole  system  would  eventually  die  of 
inanition. 

And  we  must  have  music  too,  for  some  of  the  movements  can  be  better 
done  to  music.  The  time  can  be  adapted  to  many  movements,  as  I  have 
demonstrated  myself  and  seen  demonstrated  a  thousand  times,  and  no  theories 
can  upset  the  evidence  on  this  point.  Of  course  no  one  would  think  of  jump- 
ing, or  vaulting,  or  throwing  bean-bags,  or  of  cutting  pigeon  wings,  or  pirou- 
etting to  music.  But  exercises  with  dumb-bells,  wands,  chest-weights,  and 
chest-bars  will,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  be  more  effectually  and  enjoyably 
done  with  music  than  without.  It  is  often  a  great  gain  to  have  less  of  the 
personality  of  the  teacher,  which  often  is  liable  to  the  little  upsets  which  affect 
all  human  nature,  and  more  of  the  soothing  effects  of  the  music,  which  tend 
to  keep  alive  harmony  and  good  feeling  between  teacher  and  pupils. 

I  have  very  serious  doubts  how  much  can  be  accomplished  in  the  end,  for 
purposes  of  the  physical  training  of  children,  by  the  placing  of  their  instruc- 
tion in  the  hands  of  the  ordinary  teachers  unless  they  have  taken  a  regular 
graded  course  of  several  years  in  gymnastic  work.  It  is  in  itself  a  many- 
sided  profession,  and  requires  both  wide  experience  in  studying  the  physical 
condition  of  many  people,  and  enthusiasm  to  make  its  success  assured. 

Many  ordinary  teachers  would  never  be  able  to  instruct  at  all  in  gymnas- 
tics, even  after  taking  special  courses.  The  professional  teacher  would,  how- 
ever, be  employed  only  for  merit,  and  a  much  higher  grade  of  work  would  be 
the  result. 

The  great  difficulty  in  making  a  success  of  gymnastic  training  in  times  past 
has  been  the  tendency,  from  poor  teaching  and  lack  of  interest  in,  and  appre- 
ciation of,  the  work,  to  become  more  and  more  mechanical  and  circumscribed. 
A  slow,  lingering,  and  painful  death  would  be  the  natural  consequence. 

There  is  less  danger  of  this  now,  as  more  is  known  about  physical  training, 
and  the  demand  for  something  to  counteract  the  exhausting  tendencies  of 
modern  life  is  imperatively  thrust  upon  us. 

To  sum  up  my  brief  remarks,  I  would  say  in  a  word,  we  should  adopt  no 
so-called  specific  system,  but  take  what  is  good  in  each  without  fear  or  favor ; 
then  place  the  whole  carrying  out  of  the  plan  in  the  hands  of  skilled  profes- 
sional teachers,  preferably  women,  who  have  had  an  extended  experience  in 
the  instruction  of  children.  No  others  can  fully  estimate  the  high  and  respon- 
sible character  of  the  undertaking.  I  have  a  strong  feeling  that  women  will 
make  extremely  good  teachers,  especially  with  children,  who  require  so  much 
patience  and  a  knowledge  of  their  particular  needs  which  a  man  does  not  have, 
though  he  may  have  very  good  intentions.  I  was  much  interested  in  the 
paper  of  Dr.  Sargent,  for  he  presented  the  side  of  the  heavy  gymnastics 
admirably.  We  have  got  to  take  the  best  things  out  of  each  system  and  mix 
them  all  up  and  apply  them  as  we  see  the  need. 


79 

Miss  LUCILE  EATON  HILL,  Director  of  Gymnasium,  Wellesley  College.  — 
I  am  very  glad  that  I  did  not  know  I  was  to  be  called  on,  because  in  the  ex- 
citement of  the  moment  I  may  say  something  that  I  would  not  dare  to  say  if 
I  had  time  to  think  about  it. 

It  seems  to  be  the  fashion  to  have  a  system  of  physical  training,  —  then  I 
am  sure  I  have  one.  I  shall  call  it  "  eclectic,"  for  I  have  endeavored  to  take 
the  best  ideas  from  all  systems  and  roll  them  into  a  ball  for  Wellesley,  to  be 
unwound  at  our  discretion. 

But  I  hate  the  word  "system,"  —  don't  you?  I  mean  the  running-in-one- 
track  part  of  it,  and  being  satisfied  with  one's  own  ideas  without  recognizing 
the  good  in  all  methods. 

I  am  sure  Dr.  Sargent  would  feel  at  home  in  the  Wellesley  Gymnasium, 
because  we  have  the  statistics  of  over  a  thousand  women,  and  we  use  his 
system  of  measurements  and  strength-tests.  Dr.  Hitchcock  would  feel  at 
home  with  us  because  the  minimum  amount  of  exercise  in  the  gymnasium 
is  compulsory,  and  we  march  very  well  indeed.  Dr.  Anderson  would  be  at 
home  because  we  could  not  swing  Indian  clubs  as  remarkably  as  we  do  with- 
out music,  and  Dr.  Posse  would  be  gratified  if  he  knew  that  there  are  just 
as  many  exercises  that  he  could  not  possibly  perform  with  music !  To  General 
Moore  we  owe  our  enthusiasm  for  the  "setting  up"  drill,  and  we  have  a  real 
drum. 

I  want  to  speak  in  behalf  of  the  little  girls  in  our  schools.  I  am  sure  it  is 
because  they  need  it  so  much  that  this  great  interest  is  shown  in  physical 
training.  I  do  not  think  the  boys  are  of  quite  so  much  consequence,  —  do 
you  ?  "  If  strong  be  the  frames  of  the  mothers,  the  sons  shall  make  laws  for 
the  people  " ;  and  we  are  working  for  the  future  generations ;  to  be  sure  it  is 
far-reaching  philanthropy. 

Let  us  fancy  ourselves  little  girls,  wriggling  five  hours  a  day  on  uncomfort- 
able chairs,  twisting  ourselves  into  impossible  shapes,  not  one  of  which  affords 
the  desired  relief. 

Do  you  blame  us,  little  animals  that  we  are,  desiring  the  freedom  of  kittens 
and  puppies  and  colts,  if  we  demand  the  privilege  of  exercising  vigorously 
and  breathing  deeply  for  five  or  ten  minutes  at  the  close  of  every  hour,  while 
cool,  pure  air  rushes  through  the  warm,  close  room? 

I  do  not  see  why  the  regular  teachers  in  the  primary,  intermediate,  and 
grammar  schools  cannot  be  trained  to  lead  their  own  classes  in  the  various 
exercises,  thereby  benefiting  themselves  also.  Mild  competition  should  be 
encouraged  between  schools  of  the  same  grade,  and  opportunity  afforded  at 
the  end  of  the  year  for  public  approval  and  the  awarding  of  prizes.  Of 
course  (?)  the  teachers  will  be  paid  extra  for  this  extra  work. 

But  in  the  high  schools,  when  little  girls  become  "young  ladies,"  and  can 
no  longer  romp  out  of  doors  with  boys,  because  it  is  "unladylike";  when 
they  begin  to  turn  up  their  hair  and  lengthen  their  frocks,  and  put  on  corsets, 
I  tell  you  it  will  take  the  combined  wisdom  of  every  specialist  in  the  country 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  case ;  and  the  only  persons  who  can  successfully  do 


8o 

this  are  women.     I  know  you  all  agree  with  me.     Then  floor  room  must  be 
given  for  more  advanced  exercises,  with  apparatus  if  desirable. 

When  our  preparatory  schools  adopt  a  thorough  course  of  physical  training, 
the  work  of  the  directors  of  gymnasia  in  women's  colleges  will  no  longer  be 
to  correct  the  bad  habits  formed  by  lack  of  such  training  in  public  schools, 
but  will  be  as  far  ahead  of  preliminary  drill  as  higher  mathematics  is  in  advance 
of  the  multiplication  table. 

The  object  of  such  training  should  be  the  strengthening  of  the  vital  organs, 
the  increase  of  lung  capacity,  the  symmetrical  development  of  the  muscles, 
and  the  training  of  the  nerves,  keeping  ever  in  mind  the  aesthetic  importance 
of  physical  culture  as  well  as  the  hygienic. 

The  Senior  class  of  Wellesley  College,  the  majority  of  whom  become 
teachers,  will  be  trained  in  the  system  adopted  by  our  public  schools,  so  they 
in  their  turn  will  be  ready  to  continue  the  good  work,  and  thus  complete  the 
"  circle." 

Is  it  not  wiser  to  first  show  the  members  of  the  School  Board  what  sys- 
tematic thorough  work  we  can  do  with  the  time  and  room  they  willingly  give 
us  (we  can  do  anything  with  nothing,  if  we  make  up  our  minds  to  do  it) ; 
then  by  and  by  will  they  not  be  so  delighted  with  the  results  that  they  will  be 
anxious  to  do  more,  because  a  theory  has  been  made  practical? 

Dr.  CAROLYN  C.  LADD  of  Bryn  Mawr  College.  —  I  received  a  letter  two 
weeks  ago  asking  me  to  attend  this  Conference  and  to  take  part  in  the  dis- 
cussions. I  said,  in  replying,  that  I  would  be  present,  and  would  take  part  if 
I  had  anything  to  say.  Several  times  I  have  had  things  to  say,  but  every 
time  some  one  else  has  said  that  very  thing  better  than  I  could  have  done. 
At  present  I  have  very  little  to  put  before  you.  I  want  first  of  all  to  empha- 
size the  need  of  physical  training  for  girls,  from  the  age  of  twelve  to  the  age 
of  entering  college,  about  eighteen  or  nineteen.  As  the  speaker  before  me 
said,  little  girls  get  a  fair  amount  of  exercise  because  they  play  out  of  doors 
with  their  brothers.  But  from  twelve  to  nineteen,  during  the  time  they  are 
preparing  for  college,  they  have  very  little  physical  exercise  or  work,  and  that 
is  the  time  when  their  bodies  are  forming,  and  they  are  laying  the  structure 
for  the  work  of  life,  and  it  is  the  time  when  they  should  educate  their  bodies 
and  develop  their  physical  strength. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  Swedish  system  in  Sweden  this  last  sum- 
mer, and  I  found  it  very  excellent  in  every  particular.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
one  great  cause  of  the  excellence  of  its  results  is  that  the  teachers  are  all 
well  trained  to  carry  out  the  system.  And  they  are  required  to  carry  it  out 
through  all  the  board  schools  and  those  that  lead  up  to  the  higher  institutions. 
If  we  could  get  a  system  —  Swedish,  American,  or  whatever  it  might  be  — 
that  could  be  thoroughly  carried  out  in  our  common  schools  and  the  schools 
that  prepare  our  women  for  college,  then  I  think  the  difficulties  that  we  are 
discussing  would  be  done  away. 

Miss  RUTH  C.  TOUSLEY  of  Jamestown,  N.Y. —  We  have  had  gymnastics 
in  our  schools  for  twenty-five  years.  Our  superintendent,  Mr.  Samuel  G.  Love, 


8i 

came  to  Boston  about  twenty-six  years  ago  and  saw  the  exercises  given  by 
Dio  Lewis.  Since  then  we  have  had  such  exercises  in  our  public  schools, 
partly  our  own,  partly  Dio  Lewis's,  partly  gained  from  Dr.  Anderson  at  the 
summer  school  at  Chautauqua.  We  take  everything  that  we  find  will  be  help- 
ful to  the  children.  I  feel  that  I  have  gained  a  great  deal  from  being  here. 
The  Swedish  system  is  entirely  new  to  me,  and  I  do  not  know  whether  it 
could  be  put  into  the  public  schools  or  not  as  it  is.  I  find  music  is  very 
attractive  from  the  age  of  ten  up.  All  the  scholars  of  the  high  school  go  into 
the  gymnasium  some  part  of  the  day.  They  come  in  for  a  rest  from  their 
studies.  We  could  not  give  the  time  to  gymnastic  work  that  they  give  in 
college ;  being  under  the  supervision  of  the  state,  there  is  so  much  work 
required  of  us  in  other  directions.  The  children  enjoy  the  exercises  very 
much.  One  of  our  little  schemes  to  encourage  them  in  their  work  is  to 
say,  "  I  would  like  to  see  how  well  you  can  do  it,  how  well  you  can  carry 
yourselves,  and  I  will  know  by  that  how  you  enjoy  coming  here,"  and  it 
is  interesting  to  see  how  they  brighten  up  and  how  well  they  do.  After 
hearing  our  college  professors  I  find  I  know  very  little  about  the  work,  but  I 
am  glad  to  report  that  we  have  had  physical  exercises  ever  since  our  high 
and  grammar  schools  were  organized  in  our  little  city,  which  we  consider  a 
progressive  one,  and  we  stand  ready  to  adopt  whatever  system  is  the  best. 

Mr.  RAY  GREENE  RULING  of  New  Bedford.  —  I  suppose  I  am  here  because 
I  have  the  capacity  to  learn,  and  not  because  I  have  any  fund  of  knowledge 
which  I  can  give  to  others  on  this  subject.  I  am  in  the  position  of  a  juryman, 
whether  intelligent  or  not  will  depend  on  the  character  of  the  message  I  bear 
home  with  me.  Certainly  I  came  with  one  quality  which  the  lawyers  like  in 
a  juryman, — the  absence  of  preparation  for  the  decision  of  the  question 
before  us. 

I  listened  yesterday  with  intense  interest  to  all  that  was  said  to  us,  and 
faithfully  used  my  eyes  (and  my  spectacles)  in  observing  the  exercises ;  but  I 
was  impressed  more  than  anything  else  with  the  fact  that  it  was  all  in  great 
measure  above  the  level  of  the  common  schools  of  Massachusetts.  It  seems 
to  me  that  a  system,  to  be  used  with  advantage  in  our  public  schools,  must 
be  not  only  devised  by  physiologists  and  physicians  and  by  those  who  are 
trained  in  various  methods  of  applying  the  principles  of  physical  growth,  but 
also  revised  by  experienced  school  teachers.  I  have  been  very  glad  to  hear 
quite  a  little  said  this  morning  about  the  limitations  which  the  school-room 
evidently  puts  upon  any  system  of  physical  education.  The  school-room  is 
not  a  perfect  appliance  in  any  sense.  Its  main  work  is  intellectual  education, 
but  that  can  be  done  only  to  a  limited  degree.  The  school  has  another  side, 
that  of  morals,  and  moral  education  is  an  even  more  valuable  product  than 
mental  education ;  yet  this  work  it  can  do  only  fairly  well.  But  to  physical 
education  the  school-room  is  adapted  least  of  all.  Consider  the  one  element 
of  time.  I  asked  my  superintendent  of  schools  yesterday,  "  How  much  time, 
on  the  average,  can  you  allow  to  be  given  in  the  public  schools  of  our  city  to 
physical  education?"  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  to  begin  with  the  primary  schools, 


82 

twenty  minutes  a  day ;  in  the  higher  classes,  not  more  than  fifteen  minutes  a 
day."  I  turned  this  morning  to  a  gentleman  of  large  experience  in  public 
school-teaching,  and  asked  him  how  much  time  could  be  given  to  this  work 
in  the  large  cities.  "  Not  more  than  ten  or  twelve  minutes,  with  our  present 
course  of  instruction,"  he  said.  And  now  I  venture  to  ask  Dr.  Sargent  how 
much  of  his  admirable  system  could  be  accomplished  in  ten,  twelve,  or  fifteen 
minutes  a  day,  through  the  school  life  of  the  boys  and  girls?  It  is  evident 
that  we  must  appeal  to  the  practical  experience  of  our  teachers  before  this 
problem  can  be  solved. 

I  trust  that  the  outcome  of  this  meeting  will  not  be  simply  the  separation 
of  the  different  members  of  it,  and  a  carrying  away  of  confused  and  scarcely 
crystallized  opinions  to  the  different  parts  of  the  state,  but  that  there  will  be 
provision  made  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission  which  shall  consider  this 
whole  subject  from  the  point  of  view  of  experience,  and  that  a  report  will  be 
made  through  the  public  press  at  some  later  time,  giving  a  definite  plan  on 
which  the  common  schools,  from  the  primary  to  the  close  of  the  high  school, 
may  begin  to  work.  And  I  suggest  that  a  suitable  composition  of  that  com- 
mittee would  be  to  have  gentlemen  like  Dr.  Sargent  and  Dr.  Hartwell,  who 
should  represent  the  physiological  side  of  the  question,  and  two  others 
who  should  know  the  public  schools  of  the  state  completely,  and  a  fifth  per- 
son who  should  be  a  lady,  a  lady  trained  to  observe  boys,  and  especially  girls, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  physiology,  if  possible  a  physician  who  has  also 
been  a  schoolma'am. 

Dr.  L.  V.  INGRAHAM.  —  I  have  been  interested  in  physical  training  for 
about  five  years,  from  a  medical  standpoint.  I  have  been  connected  with  a 
gymnasium  for  working  girls,  and  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  regular  school 
work  in  two  of  the  leading  private  schools  of  this  city. 

My  experience  confirms  what  has  been  very  admirably  stated,  and  what  I 
think  has  been  proved  by  the  experience  of1  Sir  Edwin  Chad  wick  of  England 
in  connection  with  "  the  Factory  Act" ;  viz.,  "  the  receptivity  of  the  minds  of 
the  great  mass  of  children  for  direct  instruction  does  not  exceed  three  hours 
daily.'1''  This  statement  is  confirmed  by  all  of  the  leading  physiologists.  I 
consider  that  before  anything  can  be  properly  done  in  connection  with  the 
physical  training  of  boys  and  girls  we  must  do  away  with  flooding  them  with 
words,  thus  wrapping  things  up  in  mysteries  which  the  little  brain  cannot 
unravel.  Mental  instruction  should  be  interlarded  with  physical  and  manual 
training.  Let  the  manual  training  come  when  the  child  is  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  old.  Let  the  child  up  to  that  time  have  ample  recreation  and  out-door 
exercise,  and  whatever  exercise  is  deemed  proper  for  winter  months  be  used 
under  proper  circumstances  and  in  sufficient  amount.  We  must  consider  this 
thing  not  entirely  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  boards  of  education.  I  bow 
in  all  honor  to  the  boards  of  education ;  but  they  should  not  say  that  we  can 
only  have  twenty  minutes  a  day  for  the  children's  physical  development,  just 

1  "The  Health  of  Nations,"  by  Sir  Edwin  Chadwick,  edited  by  B.  W.  Richardson, 
Vol.  I.  p.  228. 


83 

because  we  may  never  have  had  any  more  time  for  it.  Let  us  not  go  on  in  a 
track  because  it  has  been  long  travelled.  I  suggest  this,  being  very  much 
interested  in  this  work,  and  from  seeing  the  effect  of  so-called  overwork  in 
the  schools.  I  do  not  think  mental  training  is  thought  by  physicians  to  keep 
children  from  being  well,  but  rather  the  keeping  them  still  too  long  at  a  time 
—  the  want  of  variety  in  work  and  position ;  keeping  them  nominally  at  work 
when  no  impressions  are  made,  and  nothing  gained  except  weariness,  this 
surely  is  not  mental  training.  I  think,  if  the  time  for  direct  instruction  were 
reduced,  and  we  could  introduce  a  sufficient  amount  of  physical  and  manual 
training  to  break  up  these  periods  somewhat,  that  the  problem  would  be  more 
nearly  solved.  But  it  is  a  matter  of  evolution,  and  it  will  take  a  long  time  to 
reach  a  happy  solution. 

Mr.  WHITTIER  of  Bowdoin  College.  —  I  think  that  in  many  respects  this 
is  a  remarkable  gathering.  Here  we  are,  all  the  various  schools  of  gymnas- 
tics, each  bringing  forward  its  own  system.  And  it  is  a  great  thing  for  physi- 
cal culture  that  the  different  schools  can  meet  together  in  this  way.  Imagine, 
if  you  can,  the  different  schools  of  medicine  —  old  school,  homoeopathic,  Chris- 
tian science,  and  others  —  coming  together  in  a  conference  and  discussing  the 
relative  merits  of  their  different  systems.  It  would  take  all  the  policemen  of 
the  city  to  control  such  a  gathering.  It  has  been  made  evident  here  that 
there  are  many  systems  of  physical  training,  and  the  fact  that  the  doctors  of 
physical  training  disagree  in  regard  to  their  respective  merits,  as  they  cer- 
tainly do,  may  seem  to  a  great  many  to  throw  discredit  on  physical  training 
as  a  whole.  But  there  are  two  reasons  why  doctors  disagree  in  this.  One 
of  them  was  put  forward  yesterday ;  it  is  on  account  of  the  individuality  of 
the  teachers.  Dr.  Hitchcock  finds  that  he  succeeds  best  with  one  system ; 
Dr.  Sargent  succeeds  best  with  another  system.  Then  another  reason  is, 
that  different  pupils  need  different  systems.  Suppose  Drs.  Sargent  and 
Hitchcock  should  change  places.  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  Dr.  Hitchcock 
came  to  Harvard,  and  Dr.  Sargent  went  to  Amherst,  they  would  have  to 
modify  their  plans  to  suit  the  different  conditions.  We  saw  yesterday  a  plan 
of  exercises  as  carried  on  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  I  be- 
lieve that  for  those  associations  that  plan  is  a  very  good  one ;  but  I  do  not 
think  it  would  do  for  a  plan  of  exercise  for  our  colleges.  You  must  change 
your  plan  of  work  to  suit  your  conditions,  and  each  teacher  must  map  out  a 
plan  to  suit  himself.  I  have  been  much  interested  in  the  Swedish  system  as 
it  has  been  shown  here.  I  think  there  is  a  great  deal  of  good  in  it ;  but  there 
is  much  in  it  that  I  do  not  believe  in.  I  find  in  many  cases  that  Indian  clubs 
give  a  good  form  of  exercise.  I  also  believe  in  th2  occasional  use  of  music. 
Again,  it  seems  to  me  not  quite  right  to  claim  that  certain  exercises  are  not 
gymnastics,  as,  for  instance,  the  crossing  of  the  arms,  which  brings  into  play 
the  muscles  in  front  of  the  chest.  We  have  those  muscles  given  to  us,  and  I 
think  it  is  natural  for  us  to  use  them.  Certain  exercises  have  been  con- 
demned as  not  gymnastic,  because  they  bring  us  into  cramped  positions.  It 
is  a  good  thing  to  be  brought  into  cramped  positions  sometimes,  provided  we 


84 

do  not  stay  in  them.  We  shall  be  obliged  to  take  such  positions  occasionally 
all  through  life,  and  it  is  well  to  get  used  to  them.  I  think  we  can  gain  a 
good  deal  of  information  by  watching  children  in  their  play,  especially  young- 
sters from  two  to  four  years  old,  as  they  tumble  about  on  the  floor.  Theirs  is 
the  natural  system,  the  system  that  nature  leads  them  to  adopt.  Don't  you 
see  them  getting  into  cramped  positions  ?  As  they  grow  older,  if  their  play 
is  natural,  they  will  use  every  muscle  that  God  has  given  them.  When  they 
are  older  yet,  if  they  are  boys,  and  play  foot-ball,  they  will  often  get  into  posi- 
tions that  are  a  trifle  cramped,  and  no  very  great  harm  seems  to  result  from 
it.  Our  system  of  physical  education  should  be  a  natural  one,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible. We  should  try  to  copy  from  nature.  It  has  been  said  that  gymnastics 
is  an  artificial  thing,  and  so  it  is.  Our  whole  lives,  under  the  modern  plan  of 
civilization,  are  artificial,  and  we  have  to  use  an  artificial  system  of  gymnastics 
to  balance  the  artificiality  of  our  lives  ;  but  in  doing  so  we  must  copy  nature 
as  far  as  possible.  We  must  use  all  the  muscles  that  we  have,  and  to  an 
extent  proportionate  to  their  importance.  I  do  not  believe  in  outlawing  a  set 
of  muscles  altogether,  because  they  cramp  the  chest  when  over-developed. 
It  does  not  do  for  us  to  set  up  the  claim  that  one  muscle  is  wrong  and  should 
not  be  used,  because  they  are  all  given  to  us  to  be  used. 

At  Bowdoin  College  we  have  a  graded  system  of  physical  exercises.  We 
have  Dr.  Sargent's  system  entire.  When  a  man  comes  to  college,  he  is  ex- 
amined according  to  Dr.  Sargent's  plan ;  exercises  are  prescribed  for  him ;  an 
illustrated  handbook  is  given  to  him,  with  prescriptions  fully  made  out  to  suit 
his  individual  case.  The  chart  used  at  the  Hemenway  Gymnasium  is  also 
given,  and  every  effort  is  made  to  interest  the  young  man  in  his  physical  self. 
In  addition  to  this,  a  graded  system  of  class  exercise  has  been  mapped  out. 
The  Freshmen  have  military  drill,  Indian  club  swinging,  and  free  gymnastics. 
The  object  of  this  first  year's  exercise  is  largely  to  strengthen  the  man,  to 
straighten  him  up,  to  give  him  a  good  carriage,  to  get  his  round  shoulders  into 
position,  to  correct  his  drooped  neck,  and  in  general  to  strengthen  the  weak 
places.  In  the  Sophomore  year  comes  class  work  with  wands,  dumb-bells, 
and  other  light  apparatus.  In  the  Junior  year  we  pass  on  to  a  different  style 
of  class  work.  Here  we  introduce  fencing  with  single  sticks,  and  exercises  of 
that  character.  In  the  Senior  year  we  have  fencing  with  foils.  The  men  also 
receive  careful  training  with  the  heavy  apparatus  of  the  gymnasium.  Each 
class  is  divided  into  three  squads,  according  to  strength  and  activity.  The 
strong  men  are  put  into  the  first  squad,  and  they  are  given  pretty  hard  work. 
The  weaker  men  are  given  less  active  work ;  and  the  weakest  men,  the  third 
squad,  are  drilled  the  first  year  mainly  on  the  chest-weights  and  other  devel- 
oping apparatus,  while  they  are  given  more  or  less  running  and  other  consti- 
tutional exercises.  This  system  of  squad  work  is  kept  up  through  the  course, 
making  it  more  and  more  difficult  as  the  men  increase  in  strength.  I  believe 
that  men  get  a  good  deal  of  mental  as  well  as  physical  training  from  out-of- 
door  sports.  It  takes  a  bright  man  to  play  base  ball  or  foot-ball.  It  brings 
into  play  all  the  qualities  that  a  man  has.  It  gives  physical  courage,  will 


85 

power,  presence  of  mind,  coolness  in  times  of  danger,  and  many  other  quali- 
ties that  it  is  well  to  have.  But  the  trouble  with  out-of-door  sports  is  that 
the  men  who  need  the  most  of  this  sort  of  training  get  the  least ;  and  so  we 
give  gymnastic  work,  fencing,  single  stick,  and  other  similar  exercises  to 
develop  the  same  qualities,  —  physical  courage,  will  power,  self-control,  and 
many  others,  —  so  that  those  who  need  this  training  most  may  get  it,  as  well 
as  those  who  need  it  least. 

Of  course  a  plan  that  works  well  in  a  college  must  be  greatly  modified 
when  it  comes  to  be  introduced  into  the  common  schools.  In  fact,  you  could 
not  have  anything  so  elaborate.  I  do,  however,  believe  that  some  of  the 
same  principles  can  be  carried  out.  I  think  there  is  a  field  for  gymnastics 
and  physical  exercise  that  reaches  beyond  the  maintenance  of  health.  There 
are  a  great  many  qualities  of  mind  that  are  not  developed  by  Greek,  Latin,  or 
mathematics  that  can  be  developed  by  physical  culture.  I  think  that  the  sys- 
tem which  will  ultimately  be  used  in  our  public  schools  will  be  of  gradual 
growth.  We  must  take  for  it  the  best  of  all  the  systems  that  we  have. 
Above  all,  the  plan  must  be  a  natural  one.  It  will  be  difficult  to  arrange  such 
a  plan.  It  is  difficult  to  decide  just  how  far  the  nervous  system  can  be 
trained  without  carrying  it  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  the  work  a  nervous 
strain.  It  is  difficult  to  decide  just  how  far  the  physical  system  can  be  trained 
without  making  the  work  a  physical  strain.  The  whole  thing  ought  to  be 
made  a  matter  of  careful  consideration.  I  have  no  doubt  it  will  be  the  work 
of  years  ;  but  I  believe  that  it  ought  to  come,  and  that  it  will  come. 

Dr.  Harris  having  occasion  to  leave  the  Conference,  Gen. 
Francis  A.  Walker,  president  of  the  Institute  of  Technology, 
was  called  to  the  chair. 

Gen.  FRANCIS  A.  WALKER.  —  I  feel  it  a  great  honor  to  preside  for  an 
hour  over  this  distinguished  body  of  educators  who  have  met  to  consider 
what  is  certainly  a  most  vital  question,  relating  to  our  public  school  system 
of  education.  I  am  happy  to  have  an  opportunity  to  testify  to  my  own  deep 
interest  in  the  matter.  It  seems  to  me  positively  shocking  the  way  in  which 
we  abuse  our  little  children.  We  take  them  at  an  early  age  and  bring  them 
into  school-rooms  almost  always  over-crowded,  very  often  ill-ventilated,  and 
place  them  at  desks  ill-constructed  and  ill-adapted  to  their  physical  needs. 
We  keep  them  at  work  there  in  cramped  positions,  which  even  my  friend 
from  Maine  would  hardly  justify  as  part  of  any  gymnastic,  for  five  hours  a  day 
during  years.  Whatever  view  a  man  may  take  of  the  function  of  the  State 
as  to  the  proper  use  of  our  schools,  it  seems  to  me  too  clear  to  need  to  be 
discussed  that,  if  the  State  will  exercise  its  power  to  take  our  children  from 
us  by  force  of  law  and  place  them  in  cramped  positions  and  false  attitudes  for 
five  hours  a  day,  shut  up  like  jack-knives,  that  the  State  has  the  right  and  it 
is  its  duty  to,  at  least,  undo  the  mischief  it  has  caused.  It  ought  at  least  to 
give  the  children  time  and  opportunity  to  straighten  themselves  out,  after  all 


86 

the  injury  which  has  been  done  to  them  through  these  restrained  positions 
and  this  repressed  activity. 

I  am,  myself,  not  so  anxious  about  the  functions  of  the  State,  or  about 
the  use  to  which  we  shall  put  our  school-rooms  and  teachers,  as  to  have  any 
scruples  regarding  the  further  introduction  of  gymnastics  into  the  schools, 
even  beyond  the  point  necessary  to  undo  the  mischief  which  the  State  has 
done.  To  my  mind  the  sole  question  with  regard  to  any  proposed  extension 
of  the  functions  of  the  State  is,  Can  the  State  in  this  way  do  a  great  good  to 
the  community  without  setting  in  motion  any  force  that  will  produce  ultimate 
evil  or  harm  ?  Can  any  one  doubt  how  that  question  would  be  answered  in 
regard  to  the  introduction  of  school  gymnastics  ?  The  State  can  do  no  harm 
in  this  way ;  and  it  is  within  the  power  of  the  State  to  set  in  motion  enor- 
mous forces  for  good. 

In  regard  to  any  proposed  use  of  our  school-rooms  and  teachers,  it  seems 
to  me  that,  again,  the  question  is,  Is  this  something  which  is  of  great  impor- 
tance to  the  future  happiness  of  the  pupils,  and  can  or  will  it  be  done  other- 
wise than  in  the  school-room  ?  I  do  not  believe  that  the  great  majority  of 
the  children  in  our  cities  will  learn,  for  instance,  the  proper  use  of  the  needle 
in  their  own  homes ;  therefore,  I  believe  in  teaching  the  use  of  the  needle  in 
the  schools.  I  believe,  again,  that  the  great  majority  of  girls,  as  population 
is  now  constituted  in  our  cities,  will  not  learn  to  cook  food  properly  in  their 
own  homes  ;  so  I  believe  in  teaching  this  to  them  in  the  school-room.  Again, 
the  great  majority  of  parents  pay,  and  will  pay,  whatever  you  may  say  or  do, 
little  or  no  attention  to  the  physical  training  of  their  children ;  they  do  not 
teach  them  to  stand  properly,  to  walk  well,  or  to  expand  their  chests  and 
lungs ;  and  as  this  will  not  be  done  in  the  homes,  then,  for  Heaven's  sake,  let 
it  be  done  in  the  schools  ! 

General  Walker  then  introduced  Dr.  C.  W.  Emerson,  President 
of  the  Monroe  College  of  Oratory  of  Boston,  who  read  a  paper 
on  the  "  Laws  to  be  followed  in  teaching  Physical  Culture," 
which  was  afterwards  illustrated  by  a  drill  in  light  gymnastics  by 
the  pupils  of  the  College. 


THE     LAWS    TO    BE     FOLLOWED    IN    TEACHING 
PHYSICAL   CULTURE. 

BY    DR.    C.    W.    EMERSON. 

THE  good  spirit  manifested  in  this  place  is  a  liberal  education 
in  itself.  The  enthusiasm  that  has  come  to  us,  and  that  will 
come  to  us,  and  that  we  carry  to  our  homes,  will  be  of  inestima- 
ble value.  I  do  not  consider  it  so  necessary  that  we  insist  upon 
any  particular  system  of  physical  culture  as  that  we  agitate  the 
public  mind  concerning  the  value  of  physical  culture.  We  are 
lethargic  as  a  public  on  that  subject ;  and  although  some  one 
has  said  that  there  is  now  a  little  "  Boston  craze  "  started  about 
it,  the  public  at  large  is  not  awake  to  its  value.  The  testimony 
brought  in  here  from  every  source  in  regard  to  public  schools, 
and  the  time  they  allow  for  physical  exercises,  is  sufficient  to 
show  us  that  they  have  no  idea  of  what  physical  culture  re- 
quires. Why,  it  is  astonishing  to  me,  in  view  of  the  past  and 
in  view  of  the  future,  that  men  do  not  see  that  in  a  republican 
government  we  must  depend  upon  the  strength,  the  power,  of  the 
men  and  the  women  who  carry  it  forward ;  that  nothing  is  at- 
tained without  the  rounding  of  the  whole  man.  I  scarcely  need 
to  refer  to  the  Greeks,  and  yet,  so  far  as  education  is  concerned, 
they  have  been  the  despair  of  all  succeeding  ages.  We  have 
had  in  no  age  schools  to  be  compared  in  results  with  their 
schools.  Nowhere  else  has  there  been  such  personal  education. 
What  did  they  lay  as  the  basis  ?  Physical  culture.  They  built 
it  all  on  that.  It  all  grew  out  of  that.  In  that  is  the  secret  of 
their  success.  We  point  to  Greece  for  the  greatest  orator,  for 
the  greatest  creative  poet,  for  the  first  man  in  what  we  consider 
the  highest  mental  philosophy.  Plato  intellectually  stands  at 
the  head  of  all  the  philosophers  of  the  world.  We  must  re- 
member then  that  that  which  made  the  Greeks  what  they  were 
about  four  or  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  was  the  natural 


88 

evolution  from  physical  culture.  We,  in  this  age,  have  begun  at 
the  other  end.  We  begin  with  the  head,  but  I  am  glad  to  see  we 
are  beginning  to  recognize  that  the  feet  and  the  legs  are  of  some 
value.  If  we  introduce  physical  culture  into  our  schools,  it  will 
create  in  them  an  entire  revolution.  The  question  seems  to  be, 
Have  you  anywhere  a  system  that  you  can  wedge  in  that  will  not 
take  more  than  five  minutes  a  day  to  make  a  strong  man  or  a 
strong  woman  ?  That  is  the  question  before  the  country  to-day. 
The  liberality  that  has  been  exhibited  here,  by  which  each  one 
has  freely  and  good-naturedly  expressed  his  own  opinion  with- 
out dictating  to  others,  is  very  pleasant.  It  is  remarkable,  I 
think.  The  way  this  Conference  has  been  carried  forward  is  a 
model  for  all  conferences.  I  have  been  in  a  great  many  so- 
called  religious  conferences,  but  I  never  in  my  life  saw  such  a 
desire  on  the  part  of  all  to  agree  in  disagreeing.  We  are  bound 
to  agree  anyhow  in  the  fundamentals.  We  come  with  that 
spirit,  determined  to  agree,  like  the  Frenchman  and  his  wife.  A 
year  or  two  after  his  marriage  the  man  was  asked  whether  they 
lived  together  in  peace.  "Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "we  do,  but  we 
have  to  fight  for  it." 

Now  I  would  like  to  ask  of  any  one  who  has  a  system  that  he 
loves  as  he  does  his  own  soul,  if  he  would  desire  to  have  that 
system  established  by  law  in  this  country  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
others  ?  There  is  not  a  person  here  who  would  say  this.  The 
moment  that  you  establish  any  system  by  law  all  progress  in 
that  system  stops  then  and  there ;  there  is  no  more  growth  — 
except  towards  China. 

I  do  not  therefore  wish  to  bring  forward  the  advocacy  of  any 
particular  system,  but  some  principles  that  must  be  involved  in 
all  systems.  And  the  first  thing  that  I  should  mention  is  that 
we  must  see  that  the  vital  organs  are  lifted  up  to  their  proper 
altitude.  There  is  no  other  physical  defect  so  general  as  this, 
that  the  vital  organs  are  from  one  to  four  inches  too  low  among 
adults  and  youth  down  to  the  age  of  four  or  five  years.  The 
child,  before  he  is  three  or  four  years  old,  has  vital  organs  which 
are  very  high.  After  he  has  been  in  school  a  few  years  they 
gradually  go  down  till  you  find  they  are  much  below  the  normal 
altitude. 


89 

As  to  the  consequences,  every  physiologist  will  agree  with 
me  when  I  say  that  no  vital  organ  below  its  normal  altitude  can 
perform  its  functions  properly.  The  lungs  will  not  consume 
the  air  as  they  should,  the  stomach  will  not  digest  food  as  it 
ought,  the  heart  will  not  throw  the  blood  with  the  vigor  which 
is  required.  I  want  to  say  that  this  lifting  the  organs  up  does 
not  necessarily  consist  in  throwing  the  chest  out.  The  lungs 
are  not  on  the  outside ;  they  are  in  the  trunk  of  the  body,  and 
as  they  are  lifted  up  they  throw  the  shoulders  apart  and  broaden 
the  back  as  much  as  they  fill  the  chest.  They  enlarge  the  chest 
just  in  that  region  where  Dr.  Sargent  says  measurements  are 
now  made. 

The  question  put  before  us  by  the  President  is  to  be  consid- 
ered in  two  forms  :  What  is  the  relation  of  muscular  action  to 
the  nervous  system  ?  and,  What  is  the  relation  of  muscular  action 
to  the  vital  organs  ?  The  President  said  that  he  should  like  to 
have  this  matter  considered,  how  by  physical  exercise  we  could 
cure  dyspepsia.  1  am  sorry  he  is  not  here  this  afternoon,  for 
I  would  like  to  tell  him  that  I  have  never  known  of  a  case  of 
chronic  dyspepsia  where  the  stomach  was  as  high  as  it  ought  to 
be  and  the  person  had  sufficient  nourishment.  And  that  re- 
minds me  that  I  have  wondered  if  something  could  not  be  done 
to  feed  our  children  before  we  work  them  quite  so  hard.  I  have 
known  more  cases  than  I  have  kept  record  of,  of  persons  cured 
of  dyspepsia  by  muscular  exercise.  But  the  first  thing  is  to  lift 
the  vital  organs  sufficiently  high  in  the  body.  There  is  too 
much  said  about  holding  the  shoulders  back,  as  though  they 
were  given  us  to  put  behind  us.  The  shoulders  are  on  the  side, 
where  they  belong,  where  they  are  ready  for  us  to  use.  To  get 
our  lungs  up  it  is  not  necessary  to  throw  the  shoulders  back. 
To  bend  the  back  and  bulge  the  front  of  the  body  forward  is  to 
sacrifice  the  back  to  a  protuberance  in  front.  It  is  an  injury  to 
the  lungs  and  especially  an  injury  to  the  stomach.  I  would 
rather  see  a  person  round-shouldered  than  to  see  his  back  driven 
in  to  get  an  expansion  in  front.  Upon  the  normal  position  of 
the  spinal  column  depend  so  many  things.  The  motion  of  the 
ribs  depends  on  it.  Think  of  all  the  muscles  attached  to  the  ribs 
aside  from  the  attachment  of  muscles  to  the  column  itself. 


90 

All  exercises  of  the  arms  and  the  legs  should  be  such  as  to  more 
powerfully  exercise  the  body  than  the  arms  and  the  legs  them- 
selves. The  arms  and  legs  may  rest,  but  the  muscles  that  sur- 
round the  body  are  not  to  rest  and  were  not  destined  to  rest  from 
birth  to  death.  They  have  no  period  of  rest.  Here  is  a  curious 
fact  of  observation,  that  the  muscles  around  and  over  the  vital 
organs,  though  not  attached  directly  to  any,  —  and  the  separa- 
tion is  clean  and  clear-cut,  —  yet  there  seems  to  be  such  a  rela- 
tion between  any  vital  organ  and  the  muscles  over  it  that  you  can 
judge  of  it  by  the  muscles  over  it.  You  can  judge  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  stomach  by  the  condition  of  the  muscles  over  it. 
Dr.  Sargent  would  not  need  to  ask  a  man  how  his  dinner  agreed 
with  him  if  he  could  examine  the  muscles  over  the  stomach.  A 
person  with  chronic  dyspepsia  cannot  bear  to  have  the  muscles 
over  his  stomach  touched.  If  he  happens  to  meet  a  blundering 
June  bug  he  collapses.  Why  is  it  so  ?  My  opinion  is  that  it  is 
by  reflex  action  from  the  brain.  These  muscles  that  hold  the 
organs  in  place  create  such  action  and  activity  in  the  pneumo- 
gastric  nerve  that  it  carries  life  and  animation  to  the  stomach 
and  liver.  I  know  not  how  else  to  account  for  it,  for  it  is  an 
observable  fact.  I  saw  it  first  recorded  by  Dr.  Jackson  thirty 
years  ago,  as  a  record  of  his  long  experience  with  persons  with 
dyspepsia  and  those  who  had  what  they  called  "liver  complaint." 

Action,  exercise,  should  be  so  directed  as  to  produce  two 
benefits :  first,  the  commonly  acknowledged  benefit  to  the 
blood ;  and,  secondly,  that  which  I  wish  to  emphasize,  the  way 
respiration  affects  the  organs  below  the  lungs.  The  muscles 
that  hold  the  stomach  in  place  constitute  a  portion  of  the  mus- 
cles of  respiration ;  and  therefore  if  a  person  breathes  only  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  chest  he  does  not  exercise  what  is  below 
the  lungs.  Deep,  full  breathing  exercises  the  muscles  round 
the  waist  and  exercises  the  viscera.  The  contents  of  the  vis- 
cera are  thus  moved,  or  their  motion  is  quickened.  I  am  aware, 
in  saying  this,  that  certain  works  in  physiology  declare  that 
men  and  women  ought  to  breathe  differently ;  that,  while  men 
should  take  a  full  and  deep  respiration,  women  should  not ;  that 
woman  is  not  constituted  so  that  she  should,  certainly  after  the 
years  of  puberty.  Yet  if  you  look  at  the  muscles  of  respira- 


tion,  you  find  that  they  are  precisely  alike  in  men  and  women, 
and  the  stomach  and  the  liver  need  the  same  motions  in  both 
sexes  in  order  to  promote  their  activity.  I  believe  that  gymnas- 
tics should  be  directed  toward  the  blood-making  power,  that  is, 
toward  promoting  the  healthy  activity  of  the  organs  contained 
in  the  trunk  of  the  body  that  make  the  blood.  You  work  your 
child's  brain  to  its  utmost  capacity  to  learn  certain  things,  and 
to  be  able  to  recite  certain  lessons.  You  are  doing  this  for 
what  ?  If  I  ask  you  if  this  is  to  go  on  all  his  life,  you  say  No ; 
that  you  are  preparing  him  for  life,  giving  general  culture  in  the 
schools.  Now  think  a  moment.  You  give  him  these  lessons  to 
learn,  while  at  the  same  time  you  weaken  his  brain.  What  can 
he  do  with  this  knowledge  afterwards  ?  It  is  not  altogether  the 
knowledge  that  a  man  possesses  which  gives  him  power,  although 
knowledge  is  said  to  be  power ;  but  the  question  is,  What  can 
the  man  do  with  it  ?  Has  he  added  to  his  brain  power  by  this 
study  ?  Yes,  provided  that  he  makes  blood  enough  for  that 
brain,  otherwise  he  has  not  added  to  the  sum  total  of  his  power. 
He  may  know  how  to  solve  a  problem  in  geometry,  but  the 
knowledge  of  the  solution  of  that  problem  may  not  have  added 
anything  to  his  personal  power,  unless  he  has  sufficient  blood  to 
sustain  the  brain  which  he  is  using  while  he  is  trying  to  disci- 
pline it  by  means  of  these  lessons. 

The  effect  of  muscular  action  upon  the  arterial  system  should 
also  be  considered.  The  heart  cannot  do  all  the  work  of  carry- 
ing the  blood  through  the  system.  It  is  assisted  by  the  action 
of  the  arteries,  and  they  are  prompted  to  a  healthy  activity  by 
the  effect  of  the  muscles  on  them  —  the  muscles  while  in  exer- 
cise. You  can  convince  yourself  of  this  by  opening  and  shut- 
ting your  hand  vigorously.  You  see  how  red  the  inside  of  the 
hand  becomes.  The  motion  has  assisted  the  arteries.  We 
hear  this  question  often  asked  when  a  man  is  said  to  have  died 
of  apoplexy,  Was  he  fleshy  ?  We  hear  the  same  question  when 
a  man  is  said  to  have  died  of  heart  difficulty,  Was  he  stout  ? 
As  though  a  man  were  more  likely  to  have  heart  disease  when 
he  is  stout,  or  to  have  apoplexy  if  he  is  stout.  That  does  not 
necessarily  follow.  If  the  man  does  not  take  proper  physical 
exercise  he  may  be  likely  to  have  these  difficulties,  especially  in 


92 

the  matter  of  the  heart,  provided  too  much  exercise  is  put  upon 
it,  and  it  is  not  assisted  by  the  arteries. 

How  can  the  arteries  be  assisted  best  ?  They  can  be  assisted 
by  any  muscular  exercise.  Any  form  of  muscular  exercise  is 
better  than  no  form  at  all,  but  there  may  be  some  forms  that 
are  better  than  others,  so  far  as  assisting  the  arteries  to  carry 
the  blood  through  the  system  is  concerned.  I  believe  those 
motions  the  most  helpful  are  at  the  same  time  the  most  beauti- 
ful. I  am  aware  that  I  am  altogether  unorthodox  in  saying 
this,  that  a  beautiful  movement  is  the  most  helpful  one.  I 
believe  that  a  curved  movement  assists  more  than  one  that  is 
made  in  an  angular  manner  or  one  in  a  straight  line.  There 
seems  to  be  a  prevalent  belief  that  the  uglier  the  exercise,  the 
more  beneficial  it  is.  That  aspect  reminds  me  of  what  a  man 
said  to  me  once  in  an  audience.  He  called  my  attention  to 
some  one  who  was  present,  and  said,  "There  is  a  good  man." 
"  How  do  you  know  ?  "  I  said,  "are  you  acquainted  with  him  ? " 
"No,"  he  replied,  "but  he  is  so  ugly  he  must  be  good."  It 
seems  to  me  as  if  this  notion  prevailed  in  matters  of  physical 
culture.  It  is  sometimes  so  ugly  that  it  must  be  good.  Why 
can  a  movement  not  be  beautiful  and  helpful  at  the  same  time  ? 
If  any  one  can  find  a  physiological  reason  for  it,  I  wish  he  would 
bring  it  forward.  To  my  understanding  every  physiological 
reason  is  against  it.  The  movements  of  the  Greeks  were  beau- 
tiful, and  no  other  nation  ever  cultivated  the  physique  as  they 
did.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  slower  the  movement,  the 
greater  the  result.  Notice  the  feeble  man.  If  he  is  compelled 
to  make  a  movement  he  does  it  with  a  jerk.  He  cannot  raise 
his  arm  slowly  and  steadily  at  the  same  time.  There  is  a  jerk 
in  his  walk.  These  jerks  indicate  his  weakness.  If  you  see  a  man 
full  of  jerks  physically,  you  always  believe  there  is  something 
physically  weak  in  the  man.  Jerks,  then,  are  a  sign  of  weakness. 

The  matter  of  music  has  been  brought  up.  I  believe  that 
movements  regulated  by  music  are  more  beneficial  than  those 
that  are  not.  Music  is  natural  to  man ;  music  acts  on  the 
nervous  system  in  a  strange  and  mysterious  way.  Our  move- 
ments are  dependent  on  the  nervous  force.  Without  that 
stimulant,  no  voluntary  movement  could  take  place. 


93 

Again,  moderation  should  be  observed  in  the  beginning  and 
closing  of  exercises.  Begin  slowly.  Use  your  utmost  power  at 
the  middle  of  your  exercises,  then  let  the  latter  part  be  less 
strong.  Never  start  suddenly  in  physical  exercise.  What  is 
the  record  in  regard  to  animals  ?  How  many  horses  have  fallen 
dead  when  suddenly  started  from  a  walk.  Again,  how  many 
have  fallen  dead  when  suddenly  stopped  at  the  height  of  speed. 
It  is  the  same  with  men.  About  two  years  ago  a  gentleman 
ran  to  catch  a  train.  He  caught  the  train,  stopped,  and  dropped 
dead.  It  was  not  the  running  that  killed  him ;  it  was  not  the 
vigor  of  the  exercise ;  it  was  the  sudden  stopping  that  killed 
him.  Men  who  have  the  care  of  horses  understand  that  truth. 
They  will  not  allow  a  horse  to  stop  suddenly  that  has  been  at 
the  top  of  his  speed.  You  will  see  that  all  of  my  exercises  are 
gentle.  In  about  the  middle  all  the  strength  is  put  forth,  and 
at  the  end  it  is  lessened.  The  effort  is  so  hidden  that  super- 
ficial observation  will  reveal  only  that  a  person  is,  for  instance, 
lifting  the  arm.  But  if  any  one  thinks  there  is  no  strength  used 
because  the  person  is  not  lifting  a  heavy  weight,  I  should  like 
to  have  him  try  it.  Slowness,  precision,  and  definite  aim  are  the 
three  directions  that  I  give  for  exercises. 

Again,  we  should  secure  and  maintain  certain  obedience.  I 
believe  most  thoroughly  that,  in  addition,  we  want  a  certain  sense 
of  freedom.  While  you  are  putting  forth  your  utmost  strength, 
you  want,  at  the  same  time,  a  sense  of  freedom.  If  you  feel 
restrained,  there  is  something  wrong.  You  are  not  putting 
your  manhood  into  it.  In  order  to  obtain  that  sense  of  freedom, 
it  is  necessary  that  some  portions  of  the  body  be  free  and  unre- 
strained. The  muscles  bear  a  certain  relation  to  each  other. 
If  I  raise  my  arm,  the  muscles  are  so  arranged  between  the  shoul- 
der and  the  neck,  that  they  pull  on  the  muscles  of  the  neck.  If 
I  hold  the  neck  rigid,  I  have  given  undue  exercise  to  those 
muscles,  exercise  that  a  child  would  never  use  at  its  play.  In 
nearly  all  of  our  muscular  exercises  that  are  taught  there  seems 
to  appear  a  lack  of  knowledge  on  this  subject  of  the  relation 
which  the  muscles  sustain  to  each  other.  If  I  carry  my  hand 
forward,  there  is  a  motion  of  the  shoulder.  There  should  be 
maintained  the  utmost  economy  possible.  The  object  is  not  to 


94 

see  how  much  exercise  you  can  get  out  of  a  boy ;  it  is  to  get 
accurate,  exact,  and  physiological  exercise.  The  reflex  action 
of  the  muscular  sense  should  be  considered.  If  you  have 
developed  muscular  sense,  there  is  a  certain  reflex  action  through 
other  muscles.  I  would  like  to  have  that  provided  for. 

Physical  culture  should  continue  through  life.  You  cannot 
lay  up  a  storehouse  of  health  during  five  years  of  exercise  to 
draw  on  for  the  next  fifty  years.  You  want  to  develop  yourself 
in  a  system  of  physical  exercise  that  you  can  repeat  every  day 
as  long  as  you  live,  no  matter  where  you  are  or  how  situated. 
It  is  the  continuance  of  exercise  that  gives  it  value.  You  may 
take  special  exercise  to  bring  up  a  greater  degree  of  power  for 
some  special  occasion.  But  the  highest  good  in  physical  culture 
comes  from  continuance  therein.  I  have  noticed  that  some  who 
have  studied  in  gymnasiums  have  become  fine,  strong  men. 
What  has  made  them  so?  They  did  not  develop  themselves 
in  a  day  or  a  year.  But  you  say  you  are  going  out  into  the 
world,  and  you  cannot  carry  a  gymnasium  with  you.  You  can- 
not carry  all  the  apparatus  necessary.  Can  you  do  nothing  to 
remedy  that  difficulty  ?  You  cannot  carry  dumb-bells,  rings, 
clubs,  parallel  bars,  and  all  the  things  you  find  in  a  well-fur- 
nished gymnasium.  I  am  not  antagonizing  these  things.  I 
know  that  I  have  been  reported  again  and  again  as  doing  so. 
And  it  may  seem  to  some  that  I  am  absolutely  antagonizing  the 
use  of  apparatus.  I  do  not ;  I  simply  antagonize  this  idea,  that 
they  should  take  the  place  of  what  may  be  termed  free  gymnas- 
tics. Many  kinds  are  right  in  this  way.  They  are  doing  good 
in  their  place  and  time,  a  great  deal  of  good,  but  we  cannot 
always  have  them.  You  want  something  you  can  take  with 
you.  So  if  you  are  teaching  physical  culture,  be  sure  that  if 
you  do  not  teach  anything  else,  you  so  teach  a  man  that  he  can 
carry  himself  well,  that  he  can  know  how  to  use  his  arms. 
Teach  first  such  exercises  as  are  necessary  to  his  health,  rather 
than  try  to  make  a  Hercules  of  him.  Whatever  you  choose  to 
add  after  that  for  specific  reasons,  very  well  and  good.  There 
are  some  who  will  not  take  exercise  unless  they  can  have  a 
machine.  Give  such  people  machines  then.  Some  boys  will 
not  take  hold  without  dumb-bells  and  Indian  clubs.  Give  them 


95 

those  things.     Give  them  exercise  in  some  way,  for  they  must 
have  it. 

Dr.  SARGENT.  —  In  the  interest  of  physical  education,  and  in  the  interest 
of  truth,  as  I  see  many  teachers  here  who  are  going  out  to  promulgate  these 
ideas,  I  should  like  to  ask  Dr.  Emerson  to  name  the  physiology  from  which 
he  has  extracted  the  principles  he  has  enunciated  this  morning. 

Dr.  EMERSON.  —  Give  me  time,  and  I  will  do  so. 

The  CHAIRMAN.  —  There  will  be  time  this  afternoon. 

Adjourned. 


JFourtfj  Session. 

SATURDAY,  December  3. 


The  Conference  met  at  3  P.M.,  Dr.  Harris  in  the  chair,  who 
announced  that  general  business  was  in  order. 

Mr.  Ray  Greene  Ruling  offered  the  following  resolution  :  — 

Resolved,  That  a  Committee  of  eleven  be  appointed  to  take  into  considera- 
tion the  best  means  of  presenting  in  the  common  schools  the  method  or 
methods  of  physical  education ;  this  Committee  to  be  appointed  either  by  the 
chair  or  by  the  audience,  as  shall  be  thought  best. 

The  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr.  E.  P.  Seaver,  Superintendent 
of  Schools,  Boston,  who  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

If  you  will  allow  me,  I  will  say  two  or  three  words  in  second- 
ing that  motion.  I  wanted  to  get  an  opportunity  this  morning 
to  support  the  suggestion  which  was  then  made,  and  which  has 
now  been  presented  in  the  form  of  a  motion.  As  to  the  com- 
position of  the  Committee,  it  seems  to  me  that  a  word  or  two 
might  be  said.  Of  course,  the  need  of  such  a  Committee  is 
apparent.  It  does  not  need  illustration.  We  have  heard  a 
good  deal  during  these  two  days ;  much  of  wisdom  has  been 
shot  into  the  air.  We  want  some  process  by  which  it  can  be 
concentrated,  brought  to  a  focus,  brought  to  a  practical  issue. 
We  need  the  physicians,  from  whom  we  have  heard  a  good  deal. 
We  need,  too,  the  masters  in  physical  training,  from  whom  we 
have  heard  a  good  deal,  and  very  interestingly  too.  There  is 
another  class  from  whom  we  have  heard  very  little  during  this 
Convention,  and  who  ought  to  be  represented  on  a  Committee 
of  the  kind  proposed.  I  refer  to  the  school  teachers.  It  is 
possible  that  if  a  part  of  the  time  had  been  set  aside  for  them, 
some  of  the  conditions  of  the  problem  before  us  would  have 


97 

been  more  clearly  stated  than  they  have  been  stated  up  to  this 
point.  The  limitations  under  which  we  must  work  need  to  be 
fully  appreciated  before  the  principles  of  which  we  have  heard, 
can  be  usefully  and  effectually  applied.  We  need  to  get  an 
accurate,  clear  knowledge  of  the  situation,  and  I  know  of  no 
class  of  persons  in  the  community  better  prepared  to  state 
accurately  what  the  situation  is  than  the  school  teachers  them- 
selves. I  might  illustrate  this  possibly,  by  instancing  some  of 
the  remarks  which  have  fallen,  and  which  might  be  carried 
away  by  members  of  the  Convention  as  representing  accurately 
the  state  of  things.  I  will  illustrate  by  referring  to  one  amongst 
a  dozen.  One  speaker  told  us,  for  example,  this  forenoon,  that 
we  in  Massachusetts  —  I  am  saying  this  for  the  benefit  of  those 
who  come  from  the  West  —  take  the  children  from  the  control 
of  their  parents  by  force  of  law,  and  shut  them  up  in  the  school- 
rooms, and  keep  them  in  cramped  and  strained  positions  for 
five  hours  a  day.  The  literal  fact  is  that  nothing  of  the  kind 
is  done.  /  understand  what  the  gentleman  desired  to  say  to 
our  visitors  from  other  parts  of  the  country  and  from  abroad. 
The  remark  was  not  probably  intended  to  accurately  represent 
the  state  of  facts.  It  was  intended  —  and  those  of  us  who 
know  General  Walker  know  what  his  intention  was  —  as  an 
innocent  rhetorical  device,  a  picturesque  exaggeration,  used  for 
the  purpose  of  making  a  proper  impression  ;  and  when  the 
object  of  discussion  is  to  stir  up  thought,  set  the  pot  boiling, 
why,  froth  of  that  kind  comes  to  the  surface.  The  office  of  a 
Committee  of  this  kind  will  be  to  skim  off  a  good  deal  of  this 
froth,  and  find  what  the  clear  liquid  facts  are.  I  am  not  going 
to  say  what  goes  on  in  Boston  schools.  There  are  many  of  us 
in  the  audience  who  could  illustrate  the  facts,  and  testify  to 
them,  if  it  were  desired.  It  is,  however,  a  fact  that  we  are 
devoting  a  portion  of  the  five  hours  to  physical  exercise  of  some 
sort. 

It  has  been  said,  again,  that  but  ten  or  twelve  minutes  can  be 
given  to  this  work.  It  is  easy  to  smash  the  course  of  study, 
and  double  the  time,  if  necessary.  What  we  want  is  the  best 
possible  course  of  exercise  on  which  to  employ  that  time.  And 
the  problem  has  complications  from  this  side  which  have  not 


98 

been  presented.  Again,  as  to  limitation  of  space.  A  good 
many  of  these  exercises  must  be  done  between  desks,  in  spaces 
eighteen  inches  square,  or  they  will  not  be  done  at  all.  We 
have  school  basements  and  we  have  school  halls,  and  we  have 
lately  put  some  of  these  spaces  to  good  use.  Rather  more 
time  and  effort  have  been  spent  upon  this  subject  for  a  year 
and  a  half  or  two  years  past  than  was  spent  twelve  years  ago. 
But  we  are  not  satisfied.  We  want  more  light.  We  want 
something  that  will  work  under  the  conditions  which  exist,  and 
accurate  knowledge  of  these  conditions  must  be  communicated 
to  this  Committee  of  eleven  which  is  proposed  ;  and,  therefore, 
I  hope  that  the  proposition  itself  will  be  carried  out,  and  that 
in  this  Committee  will  be  an  adequate  representation  of  the 
school  teachers  who  are  engaged  in  the  practical  work  of  carry- 
ing out  these  theories.  I  second  the  motion. 

It  was  moved  as  an  amendment  that  three  of  the  Committee 
should  be  grammar-school  teachers. 

Mr.  Ruling  said  that  he  saw  no  reason  for  distinguishing 
between  the  grammar  and  the  other  grades,  which  would  make 
it  wise  to  place  any  restriction  on  the  character  of  the  teacher 
taken. 

The  amendment  was  not  seconded,  and  Mr.  Ruling's  motion 
as  originally  put  was  unanimously  passed.  On  further  motion 
it  was 

Voted,  That  the  Committee  should  be  appointed  by  the  chair  before  the 
close  of  the  session. 

A  paper  on  "  The  Pedagogic  Phase  of  Physical  Training,"  by 
Hamilton  D.  Wey,  M.D.,  of  New  York  State  Reformatory  of 
Elmira,  was  read. 


99 


THE    PEDAGOGIC    PHASE    OF    PHYSICAL 
TRAINING. 

BY    HAMILTON    D.    WEY,    M.D. 

PHYSICAL  training  and  its  collateral  branches,  comprised  in 
the  term  athletics,  is  entered  upon  for  the  following  purposes  : 
i,  Diversion;  2,  Mere  muscular  increase;  3,  Pecuniary  gain; 
4,  Physical  renovation  and  renewal ;  5,  Mental  quickening  and 
strengthening. 

The  third  object  is  foreign  to  my  subject ;  the  first  and  sec- 
ond have  an  indirect  bearing;  while  the  fourth  and  fifth  are 
closely  connected  with  and  related  to  the  pedagogic  phase  of 
physical  training. 

From  the  days  of  Plato  to  the  present  time  the  connection 
between  a  clean,  clear  mind  and  a  fair  body  has  been  alluded 
to  and  dwelt  upon,  but  empiricism  has  delayed  a  proper  appre- 
ciation of  the  subject  and  the  advent  of  the  new  gospel  of 
physical  training  founded  upon  the  principles  of  physiology. 

History  tells  the  tale  of  Greece  and  Rome  attaining  their  re- 
spective supremacies  through  physical  excellence;  and  from 
resulting  mental  capabilities  came  their  contributions  to  litera- 
ture and  art.  The  possession  of  power  and  acquisition  of  wealth 
induced  a  change  in  modes  of  living,  luxury  and  dissipation 
replacing  simplicity  of  habits  and  physical  integrity,  and  na- 
tional supremacy  waned  under  the  blight  of  individual  decay 
induced  by  the  gratification  of  sensual  desires  and  appetites. 
The  story  of  mental  enfeeblement  following  physical  deteriora- 
tion is  as  old  as  man  himself. 

The  fusion  of  mental  and  physical  training  in  the  compulsory 
educational  system  of  Germany  has  been  brought  about  during 
the  last  hundred  years.  To  Guts-Muths,  Jahn,  and  Spiess 
belongs  the  credit  of  the  building  up  of  German  gymnastics. 


IOO 

All  were  teachers,  and  each  one  was,  it  is  assumed,  conscious  of 
the  physical  deficiencies  of  his  pupils. 

Contemporary  with  them,  Ling  of  Sweden,  after  a  life  of 
vicissitudes  and  excitement  as  a  fatherless  boy,  theological  stu- 
dent, tutor,  naval  volunteer,  and  fencing  master,  was  instrumen- 
tal in  the  founding  of  the  Central  Institute  of  Stockholm,  of 
which  he  became  the  director  in  1816.  In  addition  to  developing 
the  Swedish  movement  cure  he  organized  systems  of  popular 
and  school  gymnastics  which  bear  his  name  at  the  present 
time. 

In  circular  No.  5,  of  the  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington, 
"Physical  Training  in  American  Colleges  and  Universities,"  by 
Dr.  E.  M.  Hartwell,  it  is  stated  that  the  Round  Hill  School, 
established  in  1825,  at  Northampton,  this  state,  was  the  first 
institution  in  this  country  to  make  gymnastics  a  part  of  the 
regular  course  of  study  and  instruction.  This  was  done  by  Dr. 
Charles  Beck,  who  had  been  the  pupil  and  friend  of  Jahn  in 
Germany.  The  good  effects  of  the  Round  Hill  School  were 
appreciable  years  after  it  had  ceased  to  exist,  for  want  of  proper 
pecuniary  support. 

In  1856  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck  of  this  city,  a  former  Round 
Hill  boy,  founded  St.  Paul's  School  at  Concord,  N.H.,  a  school 
where  a  lively  and  healthy  interest  has  ever  been  taken  in  gym- 
nastics and  athletic  sports.  In  his  deed  of  gift  Dr.  Shattuck 
states :  "  The  founder  is  desirous  of  endowing  a  school  of  the 
highest  class  for  boys,  in  which  they  may  obtain  an  education 
which  shall  fit  them  either  for  college  or  business ;  including 
thorough  intellectual  training  in  the  various  branches  of  learn- 
ing ;  gymnastic  and  manly  exercises  adapted  to  preserve  health 
and  strengthen  the  physical  condition ;  such  aesthetic  culture 
and  accomplishments  as  shall  tend  to  refine  the  manners  and 
elevate  the  taste,  together  with  careful  moral  and  religious 
instruction." 

Prior  to  1860  the  authorities  of  American  colleges  were 
indifferent  to  the  necessity  of  a  supervision  over  the  physical 
well-being  of  their  students,  neither  providing  them  with  in- 
struction in  gymnastics  nor  facilities  for  athletic  sports.  The 
student  attended  college  that  he  might  absorb  the  greatest 


IOI 

amount  of  mental  pabulum  while  there,  or  indulged  in  dissipa- 
tion as  the  result  of  passing  beyond  the  direct  influences  of 
home ;  unmindful  in  either  case  that  the  body  had  other  claims 
to  consideration  than  the  avoidance  of  manifest  disease. 

Nor  can  more  be  said  in  this  respect  in  favor  of  public  and 
private  schools  prior  to  the  time  named,  save  in  the  case  of  the 
two  institutions  already  noted. 

Passing  mention  should  be  made  of  the  efforts  of  Miss  Cath- 
erine Beecher  at  Cincinnati  in  1837,  of  which  she  says:  "When 
physical  education  takes  the  proper  place  in  our  schools,  young 
girls  will  be  trained  in  the  class-rooms  to  move  head,  hands, 
and  arms  gracefully ;  to  sit,  to  stand,  and  to  walk  properly,  and 
to  pursue  calisthenic  exercises  for  physical  development  as  a 
regular  school  duty  as  much  as  their  studies  ;  and  these  exer- 
cises, set  to  music,  will  be  sought  as  the  most  agreeable  of 
school  duties  ; "  of  the  heavy  gymnastics  of  Dr.  Winship,  and 
the  system  of  Dio  Lewis ;  all  of  whom  were  enthusiasts  in  their 
work,  and  all  alike  lived  to  see  their  systems  wax  and  wane. 

Other  individual  systems  have  been  devised  that  enjoyed  a 
brief  season  of  popularity  and  then  passed  away  because  their 
originators  had  no  higher  conception  of  physical  training  than 
exercise  for  the  sake  of  exercise  alone,  and  a  means  of  providing 
an  outlet  for  the  escape  of  superfluous  energy. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  three  principal  methods  of 
physical  training  in  vogue,  the  so-called  American,  the  German, 
and  the  Swedish,  which  I  name  in  alphabetical  order  and  with- 
out regard  to  preference.  These  severally  or  in  composite  form 
are  employed  in  this  country  wherever  the  work  of  physical 
training  in  its  highest  sense  is  carried  on. 

A  consideration  of  athletic  sports  does  not  strictly  fall  within 
the  scope  of  this  paper,  as  athletics  constitutes  a  specialty  in 
the  field  of  physical  training  and  bears  much  the  same  relation 
to  it  that  ophthalmology  and  neurology  do  to  the  general  prac- 
tice of  medicine.  In  order  to  be  a  scientific  specialist  it  is  neces- 
sary to  first  become  a  successful  all-around  practitioner.  This 
applies  to  physical  training  and  athletic  sports  as  well  as  to 
medicine. 

Physical  training  in  the  highest  and  broadest  meaning  of  the 


102 

term  is  the  cultivation  of  organic  perfection  of  the  human 
body,  the  correction  of  disparities,  overcoming  of  defects  con- 
genital and  acquired,  strengthening  of  points  of  least  resistance, 
and  an  approximation  to  the  proportions  of  an  ideal  man. 

This  implies  a  conception  of  man,  not  as  a  dual  being  of 
body  and  mind;  but  as  an  unity  into  the  scheme  of  whose 
organism  enters  the  indisputable  fact  that  for  all  mental  action 
there  is  a  corresponding  physical  basis,  mind  and  body  being 
the  two  halves  of  a  perfect  whole.  Without  matter  there  is  no 
mind,  and  the  absence  of  mind  can  be  accounted  for  by  change 
in  structural  components,  as  want  of  development,  error  of 
nutrition,  degeneration  of  tissue,  functional  faults,  and  per- 
verted action,  all  of  which  constitute  studies  in  pathology  and 
psychology. 

A  proper  study  and  appreciation  of  the  physiology  of  exercise, 
together  with  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  "  education  cannot 
create  anything  new,  it  can  only  develop  and  unfold  the  already 
existing  faculties  of  the  human  mind,"  furnishes  an  understand- 
ing of  the  manner  in  which  the  bringing  to  the  highest  degree 
of  organic  perfection  the  human  body  and  the  overcoming  of 
structural  weakness,  disparities,  and  deformities,  reacts  upon 
the  mental  faculties,  increasing  the  activity  and  receptivity  of 
the  brain  and  nervous  system. 

There  is  no  greater  educational  fallacy  than  the  idea  that  the 
brain  is  educated  at  the  expense  of  muscle,  and  muscle  at  the 
expense  of  brain,  that  excellence  in  both  cannot  be  attained 
simultaneously. 

The  body  deteriorates  under  exclusive  mental  cultivation, 
because  it  is  sacrificed  through  neglect  and  inertia,  and  proper 
hygienic  conditions  lost  sight  of  and  ignored.  It  deteriorates 
because  the  laws  of  physiology  are  unheeded  and  transgressed. 

The  essential  principles  of  physical  training  comprise  more 
than  is  included  in  mere  muscular  increase,  —  structural  amplifi- 
cation. 

Developing  apparatus  for  structural  increase  ;  free-hand  exer- 
cises to  promote  muscular  co-ordination  and  extend  the  scope 
of  action,  together  with  consequent  stimulation  of  the  special 
senses,  as  sight  and  hearing ;  massage,  whereby  the  peripheral 


103 

nerves  are  impressed,  which  in  turn  react  upon  their  special 
centres  situated  within  the  central  nervous  system ;  the  bath  as 
an  aid  to  elimination,  —  all  these  when  properly  supervised  and 
systemized  resolve  themselves  into  a  dynamic  agent  apprecia- 
bly influencing  the  functions  of  the  brain  and  nervous  system. 

In  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  exclusive  mental  cultivation 
tends  to  bodily  enfeeblement  and  degeneration,  most  of  the 
institutions  of  higher  learning  in  this  country  have  provided 
for  their  students  gymnasia  equipped  with  all  needful  apparatus, 
and  in  charge  of  men,  usually  graduates  in  medicine,  who  are 
competent  to  recognize  the  physical  deficiencies  of  undergrad- 
uates and  apply  the  proper  measures  of  relief.  As  an  estimate 
of  the  importance  attaching  to  physical  training,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  mention  that  at  the  present  time  the  directors  of  college 
gymnasia  are  physicians,  and  not,  as  formerly,  retired  and  broken- 
down  athletes  or  adventurers. 

Of  what  advantage  is  a  liberal  education  if  secured  during 
college  life  at  the  cost  of  the  contraction  of  affections  peculiar  to 
sedentary  life,  and  which  later,  when  a  professional  career  with 
attendant  anxieties  and  exactions  or  a  business  life  with  its  cares 
and  responsibilities  is  entered  upon,  declare  themselves  in  nerve 
tire  and  nervous  exhaustion  ?  Instances  are  not  wanting,  though 
happily  less  common  now  than  formerly,  owing  to  improved 
methods  in  education,  where  ambition  to  excel  and  desire  to 
reach  an  exalted  plane  either  in  college  or  subsequently,  paved 
the  way  for  a  long  train  of  neurotic  symptoms  indicative  of  a  ner- 
vous system  vitiated  and  weakened,  the  result  of  developing  men- 
tal faculties  at  the  expense  and  in  the  neglect  of  their  bodily 
habitation,  conditions  favorable  to  the  contraction  of  vices,  as  the 
opium  and  alcoholic  habits.  A  healthy  and  social  dunce  is  a  more 
agreeable  member  of  a  household  than  an  educated  neurasthe- 
niac  versed  in  the  sciences  and  familiar  with  all  languages  past 
and  present. 

The  time  is  fast  approaching,  if  indeed  it  be  not  already  here, 
when  boarding-schools,  colleges,  and  universities  will  by  public 
sentiment  be  compelled  to  pay  the  same  attention  and  consid- 
eration to  the  physical  needs  and  necessities  of  those  whose 
education  they  assume  the  charge  and  guidance  of  that  they 


IO4 

do  in  the  matter  of  mental  culture.  And  the  institution  that 
allows  a  student  to  develop  his  mind  at  the  expense  of  his  body 
and  the  cost  of  mental  warping  will  be  regarded  as  having  proved 
itself  indifferent  to  its  trust. 

Physiological  laws  know  neither  sex  nor  condition,  and  what 
is  applicable  to  the  male  applies  more  forcibly  in  the  case  of 
the  female. 

The  present  tendency  of  government  is  to  assume  paternal 
offices,  and  judging  by  the  signs  of  the  times,  the  season  is 
approaching  when  public  school  boards  and  commissioners,  in 
addition  to  an  observance  of  the  sanitary  laws  found  in  the  book 
of  statutes,  will  be  compelled  to  take  cognizance  of  physical 
needs  and  change  their  curriculum  to  include  corporal  develop- 
ment as  well  as  mental  unfolding.  The  time  may  be  delayed 
somewhat  by  reluctance  to  introduce  what  is  still  regarded  in 
many  quarters  as  an  educational  innovation,  and  by  the  fact 
that  parents  grant  the  public  school  authorities  less  control 
over  their  children  than  when  they  intrust  them  to  those  in 
charge  of  boarding  and  preparatory  schools.  Encourage  a  boy 
to  be  manly  and  cultivate  a  love  for  boyish  sports.  Do  not 
attempt  to  repress  as  coarse  and  a  thing  to  be  condemned  the 
ebullition  of  his  animal  spirits.  A  boy-girl  is  to  be  preferred 
to  a  girl-boy. 

A  child  brought  up  by  those  who  have  knowledge  that  it  is 
in  possession  of  a  body  that  calls  for  exercise  to  influence  aright 
its  development  that  it  may  not  be  weakened  by  the  demands 
made  upon  its  economy  during  the  growth  period,  is  placed  in 
a  condition  more  favorable  to  the  successful  unfolding  of  its 
dormant  and  potential  mentality  than  the  child  enervated  by 
the  undue  care  and  coddling  misdirected  parental  affection 
sometimes  imposes. 

And  here  it  is  proper  I  should  make  a  distinction  between 
physical  care  and  physical  training.  Briefly,  the  former  may 
be  stated  to  be  sufficient  attention  given  the  purely  animal 
functions  to  insure  their  continuance,  forethought  in  dress  for 
protection  against  the  elements,  a  regard  for  personal  appear- 
ance in  conformity  with  the  usages  of  society,  and  observance 
of  sanitary  laws  to  the  end  that  preventable  disease  may  be 


IDS 

avoided.  Physical  training  is  the  overcoming  of  disparities  of 
members,  correction  of  errors  of  nutrition  with  general  systemic 
accretion  and  extension,  brought  about  by  physiological  methods. 
Ignorance  in  the  matter  of  the  former  with  errors  arising  from 
artificial  modes  of  living  may  cause  a  need  and  necessity  for 
the  application  of  the  latter. 

I  would  that  I  could  portray  with  the  same  distinctness  and 
power  of  definition  by  picture  of  pen,  as  I  can  recall  it  by  men- 
tal imagery  from  object  lessons  furnished  by  my  work  in  physi- 
cal training,  the  reciprocity  existing  between  the  physical  and 
mental  state.  As  physical  conditions  have  been  improved,  the 
volume  and  character  of  mental  action  have  been  increased ; 
while  conversely,  with  exclusive  mental  cultivation  and  corporal 
neglect,  the  physical  man  would  maintain  itself  for  a  time  until 
a  certain  degree  of  mental  fulness  had  been  attained,  after  which 
body  and  mind  synchronously  would  decline,  as  if  to  emphasize 
the  words  of  Scripture  that  much  study  is  a  weariness  of  the  flesh. 

I  assume  it  to  be  in  accord  with  the  theory  and  principles  of 
pedagogics  that  initial  educational  work  should  be  under  the 
direct  supervision  of  a  skilled  and  accomplished  teacher,  and 
not  a  novitiate  who  regards  primary  class  work  as  but  a  stepping- 
stone  to  preferment. 

The  greater  the  mental  and  physical  embarrassments  under 
which  a  pupil  labors,  whether  due  to  heredity  or  environment, 
the  greater  the  necessity  for  skilled  teachers  to  supervise  the 
rudimentary  processes  of  education,  and  lay  the  foundations 
deep  and  broad  for  a  correct  habitude  of  mind  and  body. 

Many  a  child  of  tender  age  is  sent  to  school  not  so  much  to 
hasten  its  education  as  to  relieve  an  overburdened  mother  of 
a  portion  of  her  cares.  An  intelligent  teacher  can  direct  the 
play  and  sports  of  such  an  one  that  they  become  factors  in  body 
growth  and  contributors  to  mental  breadth  and  depth. 

It  has  been  truthfully  observed :  "  Training  and  education 
begin  where  previous  functions  and  acquirements  ceased.  The 
beginning  of  the  treatment  of  each  child  is  where  his  natural 
progress  stood  still." 

The  fundamental  principles  of  a  true  system  of  education 
appear  in  the  aphorism  of  the  elder  Seguin  already  quoted : 


io6 

"The  beginning  of  the  treatment  of  each  child  is  where  his 
natural  progress  stood  still,"  be  the  same  in  corporal  or  mental 
lines,  or  both  combined. 

In  the  education  of  defective  classes,  the  dependent  repre- 
sented by  the  idiot  and  feeble-minded  child,  together  with  those 
out  of  adjustment  with  society,  as  the  stunted  dullard  and  illiter- 
ate youthful  criminal,  the  child  deficient  in  moral  sense  and 
disposed  to  criminality,  prevailing  educational  measures  as 
exemplified  in  ordinary  class-room  teaching  are  disappointing 
because  they  are  not  sufficiently  far-reaching  and  penetrative. 
It  is  as  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  earth  will  bring  forth 
her  increase  for  the  use  of  man  without  a  proper  previous 
preparation  of  the  soil  as  that  these  defectives  can  be  raised  to 
a  degree  of  healthy  mental  action  by  efforts  directed  solely  to 
the  mental  half  and  the  exclusion  of  improvement  of  the  tissues 
composing  the  physical. 

It  is  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  Dr.  Edward  Seguin 
gave  to  the  world  his  classic  work  on  "  Idiocy,"  approaching 
which  nothing  has  since  appeared.  It  discusses  the  moral 
treatment,  hygiene,  and  education  of  the  idiot,  and  presents  a 
full  and  clear  exposition  of  the  physiological  method  of  educa- 
tion in  the  treatment  of  this  class  of  deficients  which  is  the 
"  adaptation  of  principles  of  physiology,  through  physiological 
means  and  instruments,  to  the  development  of  the  dynamic, 
perceptive,  reflective,  and  spontaneous  functions  of  youth." 

At  the  Twelfth  Annual  Conference  of  Charities,  at  Washing- 
ton, in  1885,  there  was  not  a  listener  not  moved  nor  scarcely  an 
eye  undimmed  as  James  B.  Richards  related  in  plain  and  simple 
language  the  story  of  Sylvanus.  Briefly  and  in  the  language  of 
Mr.  Richards  :  Sylvanus  was  eight  and  a  half  years  old.  He 
had  never  known  his  mother,  and  a  smile  had  never  been  seen 
upon  his  face.  His  father  had  tried  to  send  a  light  from  some 
shining  object  into  his  eyes,  but  he  never  blinked  but  once. 
He  had  not  the  power  of  locomotion ;  his  lower  limbs  were 
paralyzed.  Not  even  the  sense  of  pain  or  the  sense  of  touch 
did  he  have.  This  boy  I  found  dressed  in  a  red  flannel  gown, 
lying  upon  the  floor.  He  could  not  even  roll  over ;  he  could  do 
nothing. 


107 

I  took  the  boy  with  me  with  the  greatest  care  to  the  institu- 
tion, and  dealt  with  him  as  with  a  babe.  He  was  held  in  arms, 
fed,  rubbed,  manipulated,  worked  upon  to  see  if  we  could  arouse 
the  energy  of  his  body.  He  was  properly  bathed  and  exercised, 
and  everything  done  to  develop  him.  After  a  month's  careful 
study  of  his  case,  I  made  up  my  mind  I  must  get  down  to  him. 
Where  did  I  get  my  lesson  ?  I  observed  one  day  how  a 
mother,  a  bright,  intelligent  woman,  managed  her  child.  She 
was  upon  the  second  floor ;  and  her  boy,  who  was  on  the  lower 
floor,  disobeyed  her.  She  did  not  scream  to  him  from  the  top 
of  the  second  flight  of  stairs,  saying,  "Jack,  you  must  not  do 
that."  She  came  down  stairs,  both  flights,  and  getting  right 
down  to  him  on  the  same  level  with  him,  eye  to  eye,  she  said, 
"  My  dear  boy,  don't  you  know  that  that  is  wrong  ? "  The  boy 
melted  and  threw  his  arms  around  his  mother's  neck.  That  is 
where  I  got  my  lesson.  Get  upon  the  floor,  —  get  down  where 
the  child  is,  right  down  there.  If  he  knows  anything,  it  is 
down  there.  You  must  take  hold  of  the  slightest  things  in 
your  favor.  Day  after  day,  for  an  hour  at  a  time,  for  three 
months,  I  took  a  book  and  read  aloud  to  that  boy,  —  intelli- 
gently, as  if  he  understood  every  word  I  said,  adapting  the 
intonations  as  if  I  were  reading  to  an  intelligent  person.  .  .  . 
He  finally  heard  this  voice  that  was  ringing  around  him  in  a 
musical  tone  month  after  month  ;  and  one  day,  when  I  came 
and  simply  sat  in  a  chair  and  read  to  myself,  I  looked  on  one  side 
to  see  if  he  missed  me,  and  the  child  actually  appeared  uneasy. 
Imagining  that  he  missed  me,  I  lay  down  on  the  floor  beside 
him  as  usual,  saying :  "  Oh,  you  want  me,  Sylvanus  ?  Well,  I 
am  here."  He  breathed  a  soft  "ah!"  I  had  planted  the  first 
want.  He  wanted  me,  and  he  wanted  me  there.  He  had  felt 
my  influence  there;  I  was  too  far  off  in  the  chair.  So  I  read 
to  him  two  or  three  months  more.  Then,  instead  of  reading 
aloud,  I  read  to  myself  one  day.  After  a  long  time,  I  saw  he 
was  trying  to  do  something.  I  watched  him.  Gradually,  he 
lifted  his  finger  and  laid  it  on  my  lips.  "  Oh,  you  want  me  to 
read  to  you,  do  you?"  And  so  I  read.  Another  want  had 
been  implanted.  I  read  to  him  every  day,  letting  him  always 
have  the  privilege  of  opening  my  lips.  At  last  he  smiled, — 


io8 

the  first  smile  of  recognition  that  ever  came  to  the  child's 
features.  It  was  enough  to  pay  me  ten  thousand  times  over 
for  all  I  had  done.  .  .  .  This  boy,  step  by  step,  went  on.  Finally, 
I  could  take  him  up  and  have  him  where  I  pleased.  He  was 
near  me ;  we  were  one.  He  felt  it  and  knew  it.  He  was 
glad  to  be  taken  up.  This  training  went  on  till  one  day  I 
found  he  could  move  his  limbs.  I  put  him  on  his  hands  and 
knees,  to  teach  him  to  creep.  This  was  nearly  a  year  and  a  half 
after  he  came  to  the  institution.  As  I  placed  him  there,  I  said, 
"I  wonder  if  I  can  help  him  to  talk."  He  had  not  talked  any. 
I  said  to  him  :  "  Now  move  this  hand  :  that  is  right.  Now  the 
other :  that  is  a  good  boy.  Now  move  this  leg :  that  is  right. 
Now  the  other :  that  is  a  good  boy,"  guiding  them  as  I  spoke. 
I  did  this  every  day  for  months,  till  finally  I  found  he  was  try- 
ing to  do  it  himself  between  the  drills.  A  while  afterward  I 
thought  I  saw  his  lips  moving  as  he  did  it.  Putting  down  my 
ear  very  close,  I  found  he  was  talking.  He  was  whispering  to 
himself :  "  Move  this  hand  :  that  is  right.  Now  the  other  :  that 
is  a  good  boy.  Now  move  this  leg :  that  is  right.  Now  the 
other :  that  is  a  good  boy."  He  had  heard  me  talk  in  such  a 
way  that  it  had  aroused  him  to  talk. 

And  so  pupil  and  teacher  went  on.  Object  lessons  were 
taken  up  and  followed  out  until  a  connection  was  established 
in  the  expanding  mind  of  the  former.  The  teacher's  reward 
was  when  the  mother  came  to  see  her  son.  Entering  the  room, 
she  looked  about  and  said,  "  Where  is  Sylvanus  ? "  When  he 
heard  his  name,  he  answered  :  "  Here  I  am  ;  is  that  my  mother? 
Oh,  mother,  I  am  so  glad  to  see  you." 

The  efforts  of  Dr.  Seguin  in  the  physiological  training  of  an 
idiot  hand  and  eye;  and  the  faithfulness  and  patience  of  Mr. 
Richards  in  rescuing  Sylvanus  from  his  state  of  mental  blank 
and  physical  incapacity,  are  applications  of  physical  training 
with  crowning  results  in  those  cases  where  absence  of  conscious 
wants  constitutes  the  greatest  helplessness  and  deficiency. 

I  shall  not  be  guilty  of  digression  in  alluding  to  a  paper 
bearing  the  title,  "Physical  Training  of  the  Insane,"  read  at 
Newport,  in  June  last,  by  Dr.  Walter  Channing.  Dr.  Channing 
says  :  "  With  the  insane,  of  course,  the  results  have  been  more 


109 

varied  and  uncertain,  but  on  the  whole  they  have  been  gratify- 
ing directly  and  collaterally.  There  can  be  no  doubt  nutrition 
has  been  improved  in  a  number  of  cases,  but  the  especially 
perceptible  result,  which  is  more  marked  as  time  goes  on,  is  the 
generally  improved  physical  and  moral  tone,  both  among  patients 
and  employes.  There  is  less  susceptibility  to  trifles,  more  free- 
dom of  motion,  more  independence  of  action,  more  appreciation 
among  all  of  the  value  of  exercise  and  care  of  the  body,  and 
more  co-operation  in  the  general  treatment.  ...  I  feel  that 
I  am  as  yet  not  beyond  the  elementary  stage  of  physical  train- 
ing of  the  insane  by  means  of  gymnastics,  but  the  results  are 
certainly  favorable  enough  to  encourage  me  to  persevere.  I 
can  say  from  my  personal  experience,  that  there  is  much  more 
in  such  work  than  I  had  ever  imagined.  This  confidence  is,  of 
course,  of  great  assistance  in  carrying  out  the  details  of  what 
might  be  called,  'gymnastic  treatment,'  for  I  cannot  help  having 
some  enthusiasm  for  a  plan  of  treatment  which  has  been  of  such 
benefit  to  sane  subjects,  as  well  as  to  the  nervous  and  insane." 

The  application  of  physical  training  for  the  amelioration  of 
certain  nervous  and  mental  conditions  is  not  an  idea  of  recent 
introduction ;  but  like  many  other  therapeutic  measures,  when 
first  proposed,  failing  to  meet  with  general  favor,  it  was  relegated 
to  the  background  till  time  and  circumstances  should  be  more 
favorable  to  its  acceptance  as  a  means  of  treatment. 

A  modicum  of  attention  bestowed  upon  the  bodies  of  chil- 
dren, inmates  of  orphan  asylums,  refuges,  and  correctional  in- 
stitutions, in  addition  to  the  routine  life  of  such,  as  the  providing 
for  vital  necessities,  food  and  raiment,  medicine  for  sickness,  work 
in  shops  to  dispose  of  accumulated  and  accumulating  energy, 
school-room  instruction,  and  a  short  occasional  outing  in  the 
open  air  that  the  wind  may  whistle  around  the  person  and  re- 
move the  odors,  would  evolve  a  better  type  of  humanity  with 
increased  receptive  power  of  mind  and  morals. 

A  little  more  than  three  years  ago  the  work  of  physical  train- 
ing as  a  pedagogic  measure  was  entered  upon  at  the  New  York 
State  Reformatory,  at  Elmira. 

This  departure  in  the  treatment  of  youthful  criminals  was 
brought  about  through  a  recognition,  based  upon  years  of  obser- 


1 10 

vation,  of  the  futility  of  attempting  to  treat  primarily,  by  mental 
and  moral  means,  certain  delinquents  who  had  demonstrated  by 
their  acts  their  unfitness  and  inability  to  maintain  themselves 
in  harmony  with  society. 

This  class  is  represented  by  the  poorly  nourished  boy  of  the 
overcrowded  tenement  house ;  the  homeless  wanderer  about  the 
streets  and  docks  who,  by  daily  association  and  participation,  be- 
comes familiar  with  crime  in  its  various  phases  until  a  life  of 
criminality  resolves  itself  into  his  normal  state  by  reason  of  his 
knowing  no  purer  atmosphere ;  the  boy  rich  in  conceit  and  poor 
in  experience,  who  goes  astray  attempting  to  demonstrate  his 
parents'  ignorance  of  the  world  when  they  urged  upon  him  the 
avoidance  of  certain  so-called  pleasures ;  and  the  overgrown 
and  stupid  dunce  found  in  every  rural  district,  a  neglected  yokel 
barely  able  to  read  and  write,  without  resources  within  himself, 
and  corroded  by  the  tales  of  lewdness  and  crime  told  nightly  at 
the  cross-roads  store  to  the  accompaniment  of 

"The  loud  laugh  that  spoke  the  vacant  mind." 

Such  as  these  the  teacher  in  the  school-room  failed  to  reach. 
They  would  sit  and  listen  and  forget,  if  indeed  they  ever  com- 
prehended, or  in  mind  revert  to  acts  and  scenes  connected  with 
their  former  lives. 

An  experimental  class  of  twelve  was  formed.  We  took  them 
in  hand,  regulated  their  diet  as  to  quantity  and  kind,  washed 
and  massaged  them,  and  put  them  daily  through  free-hand  exer- 
cises. It  was  a  laborious  task  to  teach  them  precision  and  rapid- 
ity of  action  in  their  exercises,  but  perseverance  demonstrated 
their  susceptibility  and  responsiveness  to  this  mode  of  stimula- 
tion. 

The  class  was  continued  for  five  months,  when  the  men  were 
returned  to  the  conditions  of  prison  life  they  were  formerly 
unable  to  conform  to.  For  the  succeeding  five  months  they 
were  carefully  watched  and  noted  to  see  if  the  improved  physi- 
cal state  and  resulting  increased  cerebral  power  would  prove 
ephemeral  and  subside  upon  withdrawal  of  the  stimulation  that 
produced  it,  or,  continuing,  be  the  beginning  of  a  state  freed 
from  former  embarrassments. 


Ill 

The  latter  was  the  case,  as  generally  they  maintained  them- 
selves in  the  performance  of  their  requirements,  which  pre- 
viously they  could  not  do,  in  the  threefold  lines  of  behavior, 
school,  and  labor,  averaging  collectively  seventy-one  per  cent 
as  against  forty-six  per  cent  for  the  five  months  preceding  their 
being  taken  in  hand. 

From  this  beginning  the  work  of  physical .  training  has  gone 
on,  until  now  the  physical  training  class  has  come  to  be  a  school 
preparatory  to  those  of  letters  and  the  trades  for  the  unformed 
and  crude  boy,  the  weak  in  body,  and  feeble  in  mind. 

The  experience  gained  has  taught  the  lesson  that  those  whose 
mental  and  moral  powers  rest  upon  a  badly  constructed  and 
faulty  physical  base  cannot  be  reached  by  attempts  made  pri- 
marily to  lift  the  mental  and  moral  man  above  the  embarrassing 
and  hampering  physical  conditions  that  found  expression  in 
wrongdoing  of  head  and  hand,  as  criminality,  but  rather  by 
bringing  the  physical  habitation  of  the  mind  to  the  fulness  of 
its  perfection,  that  the  subtle  connection  between  the  cerebral 
cells,  motor  and  sensory,  may  be  direct  and  to  the  line,  not  hesi- 
tating and  devious,  with  resultant  evil. 

A  hundred  and  sixty-four  boys  and  young  men,  ranging  from 
sixteen  to  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  comprising  epileptics,  a  few 
not  far  removed  from  f eeble-mindedness,  together  with  instances 
of  physical,  mental,  and  moral  perversion,  have  been  selected 
during  the  time  the  work  has  been  in  progress,  that  by  an 
improvement  in  tissue  and  harmonizing  of  the  various  mem- 
bers of  the  body  increased  cerebration  may  be  brought  about, 
and  a  power  established  to  distinguish  between  right  and 
wrong. 

The  work  of  physical  training,  that  the  perfection  of  the 
scheme  may  be  attained,  is  a  trian  one,  comprising  muscular 
exercises  that  structural  amplification  and  harmony  may  be  ob- 
tained, the  bath  and  massage  for  organic  excellence  and  adapta- 
bility to  the  requirements  of  the  hour,  and  diet,  that  the  subject 
may  be  fed,  not  filled,  a  proper  nutrition  producing  the  desired 
force  that  these  severally  may  be  brought  about. 

This  triality  being  well  carried  out,  the  physical  and  mental 
parts  of  man  will  fall  into  alignment,  and  there  will  have  been 


112 

an  education  of  the  activity,  the  intelligence,  and  the  will,  three 
functions  of  the  unit  man. 

Monsieur  Pierre  de  Coubertin,  secretary  of  the  French  Edu- 
cational Reform  Association,  was  invited  to  address  the  Con- 
ference. 

M.  DE  COUBERTIN.  —  Mr.  President,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen  : 
I  thank  you  for  the  hearty  welcome  you  have  given  me  by  your 
applause ;  I  do  not  take  it  as  granted  to  my  unknown  self,  but 
to  my  country,  your  sister  republic. 

Dr.  Harris  kindly  said  that  you  would  be  interested  in  what 
I  should  have  to  tell  you.  I  do  not  agree  with  him ;  and  I 
firmly  believe  that  the  result  of  my  boldness  in  answering  the 
call  will  be  to  give  you  rather  a  poor  idea  of  the  way  we 
Frenchmen  speak  English.  It  may  also  give  you  an  unfair 
idea  of  the  way  we  fulfil  our  duties.  Being  commissioned  by 
the  French  Government  to  visit  the  universities  and  colleges  of 
this  country,  not  only  with  reference  to  the  subject  of  physical 
training,  but  with  reference  to  other  branches,  my  duty  is  to 
present  my  report  previous  to  any  public  statement  on  the  sub- 
ject. But  I  understand,  from  inquiries  I  have  made,  that  the 
French  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  is  not  here  to-day,  and  I 
trust  you  will  be  kind  enough  not  to  let  him  know  what  I  have 
been  doing  in  Boston  ! 

I  was  asked  the  other  day  what,  in  my  opinion,  American 
education  was  like.  I  answered  that  in  some  respects  it  looked 
like  a  battle-field  where  English  and  German  ideas  were  fight- 
ing. While  I  fully  acknowledge  that  from  the  physical  point 
of  view  nothing  can  be  said  against  the  German  system,  I 
believe,  on  the  other  hand,  that  from  the  moral  and  social  point 
of  view  no  system,  if  so  it  can  be  called,  stands  higher  than 
the  English  athletic  sport  system  as  understood  and  explained 
by  the  greatest  of  modern  teachers,  Thomas  Arnold  of  Rugby. 
His  principles  are  the  ones  on  which  was  founded  last  year  the 
French  Educational  Reform  Association.  I  wish  I  could  give 
you  a  detailed  account  of  the  work  our  Association  is  engaged 
in  carrying  out ;  it  is  no  less  than  a  general  reform  of  secondary 
education.  We  leave  aside  the  primary  school  question  which 


our  government  has  lately  settled,  as  I  believe,  in  the  best  way. 
In  such  schools  a  systematic  course  of  physical  training  is 
needed,  and  the  experiments  that  have  been  tried  in  France 
have  proved  so  successful  that  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
try  anything  else.  The  German  methods  have  now  only  to  be 
developed  in  all  our  primary  schools  and  made  the  general  rule. 
We  also  leave  aside  higher  education,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
if  we  want  to  have  well-trained  men,  who  will  enjoy  manly 
games  and  sports,  the  best  and  quickest  way  to  realize  that 
wish  is  to  train  the  boys  who  are  to  become  the  men,  and  to 
develop  among  them  a  strong  taste  for  manly  games. 

We  believe  that  the  most  important  period  in  a  boy's  educa- 
tion is  the  one  extending  from  his  twelfth  to  his  nineteenth 
year.  During  that  period  not  only  his  brain,  not  only  his  body, 
but  above  all  his  will  can  be  trained.  His  qualities  as  a  citizen 
depend  almost  entirely  on  the  lessons  he  receives  at  that  early 
time  of  his  life.  I  must  state  what  kind  of  a  citizen  we  need 
in  France ;  I  do  not  know  that  our  ideal  type  is  the  same  as 
yours,  though  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  difference  is  not 
very  great.  We  want  free-minded,  self-governing  men,  who 
will  not  look  upon  the  State  as  a  baby  looks  on  its  mother ; 
who  will  not  be  afraid  of  having  to  make  their  own  way  through 
life.  Such  is  the  work  that  our  Association  has  pointed  out  to 
French  teachers  as  being  the  most  important  part  of  their  duty. 
It  involves  practically  what  I  should  call  the  training  for  freedom. 

Now,  where  is  the  ground  on  which  such  a  training  can  take 
place  ?  What  is  the  freedom  which  a  boy  of  fifteen  can  enjoy  ? 
Is  it  intellectual  freedom  ?  How  can  this  be  ?  I  believe  if  a 
boy  were  left  to  his  own  impulses  in  that  way,  he  would  learn 
nothing  at  all.  He  would  set  aside  Latin,  Greek,  history,  and 
mathematics,  and  be  content  with  reading  novels  on  rainy  days. 
Is  it  moral  freedom  ?  I  need  not  say  what  would  come  of  that. 
His  play  is  the  only  part  of  his  life  where  he  can  enjoy  freedom. 
Let  him  have  the  management  of  his  own  games,  and  so  you 
will  turn  out  a  man  fitted  for  social  life,  that  is,  as  long  as  you 
consider  society  as  a  gathering  of  free  men ;  some  do  not,  and 
it  is  quite  natural  that  they  should  have  another  aim  in  educa- 
tion. We  do,  and  this  is  our  aim. 


Now,  can  the  English  system  of  free  athletic  sports  be  car- 
ried on  together  with  a  systematic  course  of  gymnastics  ?  I 
believe  that  to  a  certain  extent  it  can,  so  long  as  you  do  not 
make  that  course  compulsory,  and  it  does  not  interfere  with  the 
management  of  the  athletic  clubs  and  societies. 

I  must  draw  your  attention  once  more  to  the  fact  that  I  am 
not  speaking  of  the  public  schools  nor  of  the  universities.  I 
need  not  say  that  I  have  been  very  much  interested  in  what  I 
have  seen  in  this  country,  at  Amherst,  Harvard,  Cornell,  and 
other  places.  The  work  done  there  must  be  good.  Its  useful- 
ness is  proved  by  the  fact  that  such  men  as  Dr.  Hitchcock  of 
Amherst,  Dr.  Sargent  of  Harvard,  and  Dr.  Hartwell  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  believe  in  it  and  carry  it  out  themselves.  I 
am  only  speaking  of  the  schools  where  boys  from  twelve  to 
nineteen  are  taught.  Such  are  our  French  lyceums,  colleges  in 
England,  and  some  recently  founded  schools  in  this  country,  as, 
for  instance,  Groton  School,  Lawrenceville,  the  Berkeley,  and 
others,  where  Arnold's  precepts  are  followed.  Any  one  who 
has  read  Stanley's  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Arnold,"  or  that 
charming  book  "Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,"  knows  what  kind 
of  good  Arnold  has  done  for  his  country.  But  I  did  not  realize 
how  great  had  been  the  change  till  last  year  when  Mr.  Glad- 
stone told  me  about  the  state  of  things  when  he  was  himself 
an  Eton  boy,  sixty-five  years  ago.  The  moral  standard  was 
then  very  low.  The  boys  had  sport,  but  they  turned  it  into 
brutality ;  hazing,  fagging,  and  mischief  of  all  kinds  went  on 
every  day.  Masters  and  pupils  looked  on  one  another  as 
strangers,  if  not  as  enemies.  Then  came  Arnold ;  in  five 
years'  time  Rugby  was  completely  transformed,  and  the  reform 
spread  all  through  England.  That  was  some  fifty  years  ago  ; 
and  if  you  study  closely  the  political,  social,  and  moral  events 
in  England  for  the  last  fifty  years,  you  will  find,  as  I  did  with 
no  little  bewilderment,  that  the  change  was  sudden  and  general 
in  politics  as  well  as  in  society.  I  wish  I  could  give  you  more 
details,  —  I  am  writing  a  book  on  the  subject, — but  the  only 
thing  I  will  say  is,  that  the  educational  reform  carried  out  by 
Arnold  and  his  followers  has  been  one  of  the  most  important 
events  in  the  life  of  the  English  people,  and  that  it  prepared 


the  way  for  the  bright  period  called  the  Victorian  era,  the  chief 
characteristic  being  the  wonderful  influence  of  athletic  sports 
on  the  moral  and  social  qualities  of  boys. 

In  connection  with  the  Exhibition  we  had  this  summer  a  great 
number  of  congresses  in  Paris,  so  many  indeed  that  the  "Figaro  " 
proposed  to  give  a  prize  to  the  man  who  should  not  be  a  member 
of  any  congress,  if  such  a  man  could  be  found.  Among  others 
we  had  one  on  Education,  of  which  I  had  the  honor  to  be  the 
secretary.  Early  in  January  we  issued  a  circular  and  sent  it  to 
the  head-masters  of  English  colleges  all  over  the  world.  Six 
thousand  copies  were  sent,  and  we  got  a  great  many  answers  — 
from  the  Cape  Colony,  from  Australia,  from  America,  from  Eng- 
lish settlements  in  China,  and  from  Canada,  —  to  the  following 
questions  :  What  are  the  games  played  in  your  school  or  uni- 
versity ?  If  there  are  local  plays,  give  the  chief  rules.  How 
many  hours  do  the  boys  play  ?  a  day  ?  a  week  ?  What  about 
riding  horseback,  fencing,  military  drill,  rowing?  Are  they 
allowed  to  form  athletic  associations  ?  Have  they  debating 
societies  ?  Do  you  believe  in  athletics  improving  companion- 
ship ?  morality  ?  work  ?  temper  ?  I  added  that  detailed  ac- 
counts, books,  pamphlets,  and  school  reports  and  papers  would 
be  accepted  with  gratitude,  and  we  got  so  many  that  we  were 
obliged  to  open  a  library  to  put  them  in. 

This  inquiry  has  showed  us  that  all  over  the  world  English- 
men, who  perhaps  knew  very  little  about  Arnold  himself,  were 
still  holding  to  his  views  and  ideas  and  believed  them  to  be  the 
'  best.  A  reform  of  the  same  kind  we  are  now  trying  to  intro- 
duce in  France,  according  to  the  perhaps  unchristian,  but  very 
practical  principle  :  when  you  find  your  neighbor  has  something 
good,  take  it. 

S.  S.  CURRY  of  the  Boston  School  of  Expression.  —  For  one, 
my  heart  goes  out  in  gratitude  to  the  noble  lady  whose  interest 
and  benevolence  have  made  it  possible  for  us  to  come  together 
and  hear  the  principles  of  some  of  the  methods  of  physical  train- 
ing presented  and  discussed.  It  is  appropriate  for  me  to  say 
this,  as  the  special  phase  of  training  which  I  represent  is  one 
that  was  omitted.  I,  however,  understand  that  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  make  a  selection,  and  to  leave  out  all  training  which 


had  relation  to  the  voice,  to  development  of  grace,  or  for  the 
purposes  of  expression. 

As  I  was  asked  to  participate  in  the  discussion,  I  took  it  for 
granted  that  it  was  on  account  of  my  connection  with  vocal 
training  and  my  study  of  the  relation  of  physical  training  to  the 
voice  and  the  responsiveness  of  the  body  to  emotion.  I  accord- 
ingly prepared  some  points  which  were  the  result  of  experience 
and  study  which  might  throw  light  upon  physical  training.  But 
with  the  small  amount  of  time  remaining  to  the  convention,  I 
do  not  feel  it  right  to  give  all  three,  and  so  will  merely  ask  a 
few  questions  of  these  physical  trainers,  hoping  that  such  ques- 
tions may  awaken  thought,  if  not  lead  into  a  line  of  observation 
and  investigation  which  so  far  has  been  overlooked. 

I  do  not  do  this  in  a  controversial  spirit,  but  with  a  sincere 
endeavor  to  convey  to  you  something  as  a  small  recompense  for 
what  I  have  received  from  you. 

Dr.  Hartwell,  in  the  first  paper  before  the  convention,  said 
that  there  were  three  actions  which  distinguished  a  man  from 
an  animal.  One  of  these  was  those  associated  with  the  upright 
position,  and  another  with  the  muscular  actions  in  relation  to 
the  voice.  If  this  be  true,  how  comes  it  that  you  as  physical 
trainers  so  completely  overlook  the  voice  in  its  connection  with 
the  body,  and  consider  vocal  training  so  entirely  distinct  from 
physical  training  ? 

Again,  I  wish  to  ask  why  it  is  that  our  leading  vocal  trainers 
keep  their  pupils,  if  possible,  away  from  the  gymnasium  ?  It  is 
their  experience,  as  many  have  told  me,  as  it  certainly  has  been 
mine,  that  much  of  the  work  in  the  gymnasium  injures  the 
voice.  Is  there  not  something  wrong,  and  have  you  carefully 
considered  what  the  mistake  is  ?  Would  you  be  willing  that  I 
should  explain  my  understanding  of  the  difficulty  ?  As  I  look 
into  the  faces  of  physical  trainers  from  all  over  this  country,  I 
feel  that  this  is  an  important  question. 

I  rejoice  with  you  in  all  that  you  have  done.  A  vast  number 
of  discoveries  have  been  made  in  relation  to  physical  training 
in  the  last  few  years,  which  do  great  honor  to  the  investigators. 
To  my  own  personal  knowledge  —  and  I  have  heard  the  same 
stated  by  others  —  the  moral  atmosphere  about  Harvard  has 


been  greatly  improved  during  the  past  five  years.  Men  do  not, 
to  the  same  degree,  drink  and  smoke  and  engage  in  many  things 
which  were  formerly  very  common.  They  say  athletes  must 
not  do  so.  These  things  lower  the  tone  of  the  system  and 
hinder  development,  and  I  earnestly  hope  that  you  will  go  on 
in  your  investigations ;  but,  in  your  deep  researches  in  physi- 
ology, do  not  forget  that  there  are  other  ways  of  looking  at  man. 
The  Greeks  did  not  possess  the  remarkable  knowledge  regarding 
physiology  that  you  have,  but  they  studied  a  man  artistically, 
and  accomplished  results  which  have  never  since  been  rivalled. 
There  are  other  forms  of  harmony  which  are  greater  and  deeper 
than  muscular  proportion.  Muscles  may  seemingly  be  in  exact 
proportion  to  each  other,  and  yet  there  may  be  some  vital  part 
in  the  depths  of  the  body  which  may  be  weak,  and  it  is  the  weak 
part  which  needs  attention. 

Now  if  I  could  have  time,  I  might  unfold  a  great  many  points 
where  the  ordinary  gymnastics  injure  the  voice.  I  once  taught 
a  young  actor,  whose  throat  was  sore  when  he  came  to  me,  and 
his  breathing  abnormal.  I  did  my  best  to  restore  the  normal 
relationship,  but  he  seemed  to  get  no  better.  One  day  he  asked 
me  if  I  thought  the  gymnasium  tended  to  hinder  his  voice  and 
upset  his  breathing.  I  asked  him  what  he  did.  I  carefully  went 
over  with  him  the  programme  of  exercises  which  he  practised.  All 
was  clear  to  me.  I  did  not  advise  him  to  leave  the  gymnasium, 
because  I  have  ever  felt  that  if  gymnastics  were  properly  prac- 
tised they  would  be  a  great  aid  to  the  voice.  I  went  over  all 
his  exercises  and  explained  to  him  how  to  practise  them.  His 
voice  began  to  improve  at  once ;  everything  was  restored.  He 
insisted,  in  a  few  days,  on  leaving  the  gymnasium ;  but  if  he 
could  have  practised  in  accordance  with  the  principles  I  gave 
him,  and  would  have  obeyed  instructions,  it  would  have  been 
unnecessary. 

One  cause  of  the  abnormal  effect  of  the  gymnasium  is  that 
the  man  is  caused,  in  some  exercises  especially  as  ordinarily 
practised,  to  acquire  a  labored  method  of  breathing.  In  fact, 
Maclaren  justifies  this,  and  says  that  one  of  the  benefits  of  the 
gymnasium  is  that  it  introduces  the  muscles  usually  connected 
with  labored  breathing,  and  causes  the  man  to  use  them  regu- 


larly.  This  is  absolutely  disastrous,  if  not  ruinous,  to  the 
voice. 

Of  course  every  gymnastic  exercise  is  an  exaggeration,  and 
it  must  be  an  exaggeration  along  the  line  of  nature's  normal 
intention.  An  exaggeration  that  perverts  or  displaces  nature 
will  be  degrading  in  its  tendency.  The  fundamental  aim  of  all 
gymnastics,  as  is  shown  by  Ling,  must  be  to  extend  and  develop 
the  breathing ;  but  this  must  not  be  forced,  must  not  be  has- 
tened or  strained,  but  the  growth  of  the  breathing  must  be 
gradual  and  along  the  line  of  nature's  normal  intention. 

Again,  why  do  so  many  of  our  physical  trainers,  if  not  all, 
give  such  exercises  as  constrict  and  stiffen  the  hips.  Several 
exercises  which  have  been  shown  upon  this  platform  during  this 
convention  have  had  this  tendency.  Now  if  you  will  observe 
nature  all  around  you,  you  will  see  that  every  man  has  an  appar- 
ent centre,  about  which  all  parts  of  the  body  move.  His  limbs 
seem  to  radiate  about  the  apparent  centre.  Compare  the  awk- 
ward man  with  the  man  who  moves  gracefully.  You  will  find 
the  awkward  man,  if  he  centres  himself  anywhere,  centres  all  his 
actions  in  his  hip,  while  the  graceful  man  centres,  so  to  speak, 
his  activities  more  at  the  centre  of  the  upper  part  of  his  chest. 

Why  is  the  axial  line  of  the  body  forgotten  ?  Sir  William 
Turner,  Professor  of  Physiology  in  Edinborough  University, 
says  that  the  axial  line  runs  from  the  summit  to  the  base  of  the 
spinal  column,  and  that  this  is  his  fundamental  anatomical  pecu- 
liarity as  distinguished  from  an  animal ;  that  the  curvatures  of 
the  spine,  in  relation  to  this  axial  line,  are  increased  in  disease, 
and  made  abnormal  in  many  aspects.  Why  is  this  line  forgotten 
in  physical  training  ?  I  can  take  any  of  your  exercises  and  not 
destroy  this  axial  line  of  the  spine,  but  can  so  use  the  exercise 
as  to  establish  its  summit  where  it  should  be  established,  and 
enable  a  man  to  stand  in  stable  equilibrium  rather  than  in  un- 
stable equilibrium.  You  know  it  is  a  simple  principle  of  physics 
that  if  a  body  is  supported  below  the  centre  of  gravity  it  is  in 
unstable  equilibrium,  but  if  supported  above  the  centre  of 
gravity  it  has  stable  equilibrium.  A  large  number  of  the  men 
we  see  upon  the  street  walk  in  unstable  equilibrium.  When  we 
find  a  man  standing  in  stable  equilibrium,  with  the  activities  of 


his  body  around  the  centre  of  his  chest,  we  find  ease,  and  grace, 
and  repose.  Will  not  you  physical  trainers  make  some  observa- 
tion upon  these  points  ? 

Our  Commissioner  of  Education,  the  chairman  of  this  meeting, 
has  defined  education  in  his  commentary  upon  Rosenkranz's 
"  Philosophy  of  Education,"  as  the  actualization  of  the  ideal.  If 
physical  training  is  a  part  of  education,  it  must  be  the  actualiza- 
tion of  the  ideal  physical  man  through  exercises.  Consciously 
or  unconsciously  in  the  mind  of  every  physical  trainer  there  is 
an  ideal  man,  and  every  physical  trainer,  as  he  examines  a  man, 
penetrates  into  his  needs,  and  not  only  has  this  general  ideal, 
but  from  specific  insight  into  nature's  intention  regarding  the 
particular  man  before  him,  forms  an  individual  ideal.  You 
doctors  know  the  difficulty  in  making  a  pathological  diagnosis, 
but  a  diagnosis  for  physical  training  is  in  some  respects  more 
difficult.  For  the  trainer  has  not  only  to  see  what  the  man  is, 
but  what  he  may  become,  and  prescribe  such  exercises  as  will 
enable  him  to  become  what  nature  intended  him  to  be.  This 
proves  clearly  that  the  physical  trainer  must  be  an  educated 
man.  Special  development  and  training  are  very  essential. 
He  must  not  be  narrow,  must  have  no  hobby  but  the  broadest 
conception  of  his  subject  and  the  deepest  intuitive  insight  into 
the  needs  of  men. 

Dr.  Hartwell,  in  the  opening  paper,  indicated  a  very  great 
advance  in  showing  that  training  must  have  respect  to  the 
nerves  as  well  as  the  muscles.  His  criticism  of  the  definition 
of  exercise  as  muscular  movement,  by  Maclaren,  was  well  taken. 
But  why  did  he  not  bring  out  the  other  side  ?  Movements  do 
not  necessarily  evolve  a  man.  They  may  degrade  him  by  a 
process  known  in  science  as  devolution.  And  if  physical  exer- 
cises tend  to  establish  a  centre  in  the  hip,  so  that  all  the  man's 
radiation  seems  to  take  place  from  this  point,  the  man  is 
degraded,  and  not  ennobled.  But  you  say  that  in  physical 
training  man  must  be  centred  everywhere.  There  is  a  sense 
in  which  this  is  true ;  but  if  the  centralization  of  the  man  is 
in  different  parts  not  related  to  the  one  great  centre  corre- 
sponding with  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  man,  the  unity  of  his 
organism  is  more  or  less  destroyed,  chaos  is  introduced  among 


120 

his  parts,  and  all  grace  and  ease,  and  strength  as  well,  will  be 
destroyed. 

Notwithstanding  the  advances  made,  have  any  of  you  at  this 
Conference  received  any  suggestions  as  to  the  power  of  an  exer- 
cise to  elevate  a  man  or  to  degrade  him  ?  Have  you  had  any 
principle  even  hinted  that  can  enable  you  to  better  make  your 
diagnosis  and  apply  prescribed  exercises  so  as  to  elevate  a  man 
in  the  scale  of  manhood,  and  not  degrade  him  into  an  animal  ? 

It  is  fifty  years  last  May  since  the  death  of  Ling,  and  we  do 
well  to-day  to  do  him  honor.  Dr.  Richter,  the  great  physician 
of  Hanover,  said  "his  principles  are  incontestable,"  while  a  lead- 
ing French  authority  says  "if  he  was  not  the  creator  of  the 
modern,  scientific  gymnasium ;  he  was  its  regenerator."  But 
the  greatness  of  Ling  was  his  principles  rather  than  his  mere 
methods  or  so-called  system.  Fifteen  or  twenty  of  these  prin- 
ciples, which  I  gathered  many  years  ago  in  an  imperfect  form, 
have  been  to  me  guiding  stars  in  all  my  work  of  training.  They 
have  been  so  broad  and  so  deep  that  I  have  realized  their  truth 
in  every  phase  of  training,  and  I  gladly  pay  tribute  to  all  he  has 
done  for  me. 


121 


The  following  paper  was  then  read  :  — 

MILITARY   DRILL. 

BY   HOBART   MOORE, 
OF  THE  BOSTON  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

MILITARY  drill  as  a  system  of  physical  exercise  has  been  in 
use  in  the  high  schools  of  Boston  for  a  period  of  over  twenty- 
five  years.  During  this  long  test  of  its  value  many  discussions 
have  arisen,  and  a  mass  of  testimony  has  been  received  from 
physicians  and  others  acknowledging  the  physical  and  moral 
benefits  derived  from  this  system  of  physical  training.  When 
first  introduced  into  the  public  schools,  the  pupils  were  few  in 
number ;  to-day  over  fifteen  hundred  boys  receive  instruction  in 
this  department  of  the  school  work.  The  application  of  the 
rudiments  of  military  science  for  so  long  a  time  has  resulted  in 
adapting  it  to  the  requirements  of  the  scholar  until  it  has 
become  an  established  organization  comprising  all  the  boys  in 
the  high  schools  of  the  city.  While  the  tactics  and  discipline 
of  the  army  of  the  United  States  are  very  closely  followed,  mod- 
ifications have  been  found  necessary  to  make  the  drill  conform- 
able to  the  size  and  age  of  the  pupils.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
movements  prescribed  by  the  authority  on  military  tactics  have 
been  somewhat  extended  in  order  to  make  a  more  perfect  sys- 
tem of  physical  exercise.  Movements  in  the  manual  of  arms 
have  been  added  to  equalize  the  exercise  of  the  muscles  on  both 
sides  of  the  body,  so  that  as  now  taught  the  movement  of  the 
piece  from  one  position  to  another  affords  a  great  variety  of 
exercise,  and  particularly  brings  into  action  the  muscles  of  the 
arms  and  chest. 

The  scholar  executes  his  movements  by  words  of  command, 
his  instructor  being  enabled  thereby  to  control  him,  give  him 
the  requisite  amount  of  exercise,  and  prevent  over-exertion. 


122 

He  is  taught  the  position  of  the  soldier  which  he  must  assume 
at  the  completion  of  every  movement. 

The  balance  step,  while  furnishing  a  light  form  of  exercise, 
insures  to  him  a  proper  motion  and  regularity  in  the  use  of  the 
muscles  of  the  leg.  He  is  now  prepared  to  march.  The  num- 
ber of  steps  he  is  to  take  per  minute  is  carefully  prescribed ; 
and  soon  becoming  accustomed  to  this  regularity  and  precision, 
he  acquires  the  habit  of  walking  with  a  dignity,  steadiness,  and 
soldierly  bearing  not  apparent  in  those  who  have  never  had  this 
or  similar  training. 

In  the  double-time  movement  he  obtains  more  violent  exer- 
cise, and  if  he  follows  the  instructions  given  him  about  breath- 
ing, he  develops  a  healthy  expansion  of  the  lungs,  and  soon 
accustoms  himself  to  execute  this  movement  for  a  long  time 
with  little  fatigue. 

The  exercises  termed  the  "  Setting-up  Exercise,"  the  first  to 
which  the  scholar  is  introduced  on  his  entry  into  training,  is 
one  of  the  most  valuable  parts  of  the  whole  system,  and  has 
been  in  use  in  the  schools  ever  since  it  was  introduced  into  the 
regular  army.  It  is  admitted  by  all  to  be  one  of  the  most  effi- 
cient of  the  various  forms  of  light  exercise,  and  is  used  by  the 
pupils  at  every  drill.  In  the  hall  of  the  English  High  and 
Latin  Schools  of  this  city  these  and  various  other  elements  of 
the  drill  are  given  with  excellent  results  to  four  hundred  boys 
at  one  time. 

Having  exercised  in  all  these  different  movements,  the  schol- 
ars are  formed  into  companies  and  instructed  in  executing  ma- 
noeuvres and  the  manual  of  arms  in  rapid  succession.  The 
use  of  the  musket  gives  flexibility,  firmness,  muscular  strength, 
and  an  erect  position  of  the  body.  The  company  movements 
cultivate  precision  and  freedom  of  motion. 

This  combination  of  movements  has  been  found  by  long 
experience  to  be  a  most  valuable  form  of  exercise  for  pupils  of 
the  age  of  those  attending  our  high  schools. 

Parents  who  have  had  boys  previously  instructed  in  the  drill 
have  often  requested  that  their  younger  sons  be  allowed  the 
privilege  of  attending  this  exercise.  The  novelty  of  becoming 
a  soldier  is  very  attractive  to  the  average  school  boy.  So 


123 

anxious  has  he  been  to  enter  upon  the  course  of  drill  that  the 
school  committee  were  obliged  to  limit  the  age  at  which  he  may 
be  admitted. 

I  speak  of  this  to  show  that  one  of  the  most  valuable  features 
of  this  system  of  instruction  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
scholar  enters  into  these  exercises  with  a  real  interest,  a  lively 
imagination,  and  an  entire  forgetfulness  while  performing  his 
military  duties,  that  the  main  purpose  of  his  actions  is  to  develop 
his  physique. 

The  drudgery  of  simple  exercises  thus  covered  up  with  the 
enthusiastic  spirit  of  a  soldier  gives  to  the  scholar  the  best 
physical  exercise  he  could  obtain ;  namely,  that  acquired  in  a 
pleasant  and  unconscious  frame  of  mind. 

It  is  quite  common  to  speak  of  the  exercise  as  a  means  of 
physical  training  merely.  The  fact  is  overlooked,  or  little 
thought  of,  that  it  furnishes  a  moral  culture  of  scarcely  less 
value  than  the  bodily  exercise  it  affords.  It  helps  materially  in 
training  boys  to  habits  of  obedience,  obedience  which  is  prompt, 
which  is  unquestioned,  and  which  boys  feel  to  be  manly.  It  has 
been  truly  said  "  that  the  American  boy  runs  no  risk  of  being 
overtrained  in  this  direction."  It  has  proved  efficacious  in  pro- 
ducing orderly  habits  and  is  a  most  important  aid  in  the  discipline 
of  the  school.  This  is  the  universal  testimony  of  teachers  in  the 
schools  in  which  the  drill  is  a  part  of  the  curriculum.  It  devel- 
ops a  more  manly  spirit  in  the  boy,  invigorates  his  intellect, 
both  directly  and  indirectly,  makes  him  more  graceful  and 
gentlemanly  in  his  bearing,  and  fits  him  for  the  primary  duties 
of  life,  —  those  of  a  good  citizen. 

The  physical  condition  of  boys  entering  upon  military  in- 
struction has  been  carefully  observed,  and  it  conclusively  shows 
that  they  never  have  had  a  proper  course  of  physical  exercise 
during  the  time  they  have  spent  in  the  lower  grades  of  our 
schools. 

Accustomed  as  they  have  been  to  close  confinement  to  their 
desks  and  school-rooms,  many  of  them  arrive  at  the  high  schools 
with  the  right  shoulder  lower  than  the  left  and  with  a  tendency 
to  be  round-shouldered.  They  are  so  slow  and  stiff  in  the  use 
of  the  muscles  that  they  are  unable  at  first  to  perform  in  a  satis- 


124 

factory  manner  the  simplest  forms  of  the  setting-up  exercises. 
This  condition  of  the  boys  is  partly  accounted  for  when  it 
is  considered  that  the  seats  occupied  by  them  are  a  con- 
stantly acting  cause  of  curvature  of  the  spine  or  other  deform- 
ity. In  some  German  cities  the  setting-up  exercise  is  used  as 
a  curative  measure  in  the  treatment  of  spinal  and  other  de- 
formities. 

My  long  observation  of  the  physical  condition  of  scholars 
about  to  enter  the  course  of  military  drill  convinces  me  that 
there  should  be  some  thorough  and  efficient  system  of  physical 
culture  based  upon  the  elementary  principles  of  military  train- 
ing, commencing  with  the  lightest  forms  of  the  exercise  in  the 
primary  schools  and  progressing  through  the  grammar  schools, 
and  so  training  the  muscles  of  the  scholar  as  to  counteract  the 
tendencies  toward  deformity  continually  surrounding  him.  In 
this  way  he  would  be  better  prepared,  when  he  enters  the  high 
school,  for  the  more  extensive  training  of  military  drill. 

Whatever  may  be  the  different  movements  prescribed  for  the 
lower-grade  schools,  they  should  in  every  instance  be  executed 
by  words  of  command,  so  that  the  actions  of  the  scholar  will  be 
continually  within  the  control  of  the  instructor. 

The  execution  by  command  enables  him  to  think  quickly  and 
directs  his  thoughts  to  the  movement  rather  than  to  the 
exercise. 

A  system  of  physical  culture  should  not  be  adopted  simply 
for  boys.  The  girls  are  in  greater  need  of  exercise,  and  should 
be  equally  considered  in  a  discussion  of  this  subject. 

In  the  primary  and  grammar  schools  the  setting-up  and  other 
light  forms  of  exercise  would  be  the  same  for  girls  as  boys. 
The  training  of  girls  in  our  high  schools  in  the  more  extensive 
instruction  of  military  drill,  so  far  as  that  system  is  applicable 
to  them,  has  been  very  successfully  tested  in  one  of  those 
schools. 

In  so  short  a  paper  I  have  been  able  only  to  touch  upon  some 
of  the  more  noticeable  features  of  the  drill  and  to  suggest  that  a 
system  having  the  principles  of  military  drill  running  through 
it  would  contribute  more  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  bene- 
fit than  any  other  system. 


125 

Dr.  J.  G.  BLAKE,  of  the  Boston  School  Board.  —  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  defend  military  drill  before  an  audience  composed 
in  part  of  the  parents  of  pupils  in  our  boys'  high  schools.  I  do 
not  think  that  its  most  ardent  advocates  will  claim  that  it  is  a 
perfect  system  of  physical  training ;  but  there  are  many  good 
points  in  its  favor,  and  I  am  glad  to  add  my  testimony  to  that 
of  General  Moore. 

The  points  which  I  should  like  to  make  in  its  behalf  are,  first 
its  freedom  from  accident  or  injury  to  the  boys.  During  a  ser- 
vice of  fourteen  years  on  the  High  School  Committee,  and  as 
chairman  for  several  years,  no  report  of  injury  to  any  pupils 
from  participation  in  the  drill  has  been  brought  to  my  notice. 
When  we  remember  that  in  the  Boston  High  and  Latin  Schools 
alone  about  twelve  hundred  boys  take  part  in  the  drill,  this 
exemption  becomes  remarkable.  The  same  could  not  be  said 
of  the  most  carefully  supervised  gymnasium.  Second,  the  boys 
enjoy  it,  and  it  is  a  rare  occurrence  to  have  an  application  for 
release  from  the  drill.  Of  course,  if  any  pupil  is  thought  to  be 
physically  unfitted,  he  is  not  allowed  to  take  part ;  and  no  pupil 
under  thirteen  years  of  age  is  allowed  to  drill  unless  by  special 
request  of  his  parents. 

Third,  it  is  a  good  mental  and  moral  discipline  —  the  boy 
learns  to  obey,  and  that  is  the  first  step  towards  learning  to 
command.  There  is  very  little  danger  of  the  average  American 
schoolboy  being  overtrained  in  this  particular.  Fourth,  it  helps 
to  form  character ;  all  the  associations  of  the  soldier's  life  are 
such  as  we  should  like  our  boys  to  remember,  —  patriotism, 
chivalry,  love  and  defence  of  country  and  home.  Fifth,  it  is 
a  powerful  aid  in  maintaining  a  high  order  of  discipline  in  the 
schools,  and  an  incentive  to  study,  as  the  offices  are  the  rewards 
of  good  conduct  and  scholarship. 

And  lastly,  with  the  present  limited  means  at  our  command 
for  a  more  perfect  gymnasium  course,  we  can  do  more  in  the 
time  allotted  to  the  drill — two  hours  a  week  —  than  by  any 
other  method  which  has  yet  been  discussed  —  for  the  same 
number  of  boys. 


126 

The  following  committee  on  Physical  Training  was  then 
announced  by  Dr.  Harris  in  accordance  with  the  resolution 
offered  by  Mr.  Ruling  :  — 

Edwin  P.  Seaver,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Boston. 

J.  W.  Dickinson,  Secretary  Board  of  Education,  Boston. 

Edward  M.  Hartwell,  M.D.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

D.  A.  Sargent,  M.D.,  Harvard  College,  Cambridge. 

Miss  Amy  Morris  Romans,  Boston. 

Ray  Greene  Ruling,  New  Bedford. 

James  A.  Page,  Boston. 

C.  G.  Meleney,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Somerville. 

Prof.  Lucile  E.  Hill,  Wellesley  College. 

Prof.  J.  B.  Powell,  Washington,  D.C. 

Mrs.  Louisa  P.  Hopkins,  Boston. 

Dr.  Emerson  was  asked  to  speak  for  five  minutes,  in  reply  to 
the  question  asked  by  Dr.  Sargent  in  the  morning. 

Dr.  EMERSON.  —  Dr.  Sargent  thought  that  in  the  interest  of 
education  he  would  like  to  have  me  state  in  what  books  the 
ideas  that  I  presented  this  morning  could  be  found.  He  did 
not  say  this  as  doubting  what  had  been  said,  as  he  told  me  per- 
sonally. It  was  not  a  challenge.  It  was  simply  asking  me  to 
put  you  on  the  line  of  hunting  up  these  things  for  yourselves. 
I  will  say  that,  in  the  form  that  I  put  them  together,  I  do  not 
know  of  any  book  where  you  will  find  them.  But  you  can  find 
the  foundation  in  Carpenter's  Physiology,  and  also  in  Flint's, 
and  in  several  others  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  mention.  I 
only  gave  you  the  facts  that  could  be  found  in  books ;  the 
placing  them  was  my  own  as  was  the  logic  growing  out  of  them. 

Dr.  SARGENT.  —  I  do  not  care  at  this  late  hour  to  reply  in 
full  to  Dr.  Emerson's  paper.  I  asked  him  to  state  in  what 
anatomies  and  physiologies  the  principles  he  advocated  could 
be  found,  because  as  I  understood  him  I  could  not  help  think- 
ing that  some  of  his  statements  were  misleading. 

Years  ago  I  gave  up  making  positive  assertions  in  regard  to 
the  body.  I  felt  that  I  could  not  tell  a  man  that  he  was  not 
symmetrically  or  harmoniously  developed,  for  I  did  not  know. 

A  great  many  other  things  occurred  in  connection  with  my 
early  practice  that  made  me  feel  that  I  was  working  in  the  dark, 
for  I  could  find  no  data  to  guide  me. 


127 

After  comparing  my  experiences  with  a  number  of  others  who 
were  interested  in  the  study  and  search  for  truth,  for  principles, 
we  agreed  upon  a  uniform  system  of  measurements,  as  the  first 
step  towards  obtaining  data  that  would  be  a  guide  to  ourselves 
as  well  as  to  others. 

We  are  now  engaged  in  the  great  work  of  making  physical 
measurements  of  individuals  throughout  this  country  and  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  world,  for  I  have  returns  from  countries  as 
remote  from  us  as  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 

I  have  just  been  informed  that  the  international  committee 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  have  adopted  the 
general  principles  of  this  system  of  measurements,  and  will 
carry  the  uniform  plan  into  all  of  their  gymnasiums. 

Soon  we  may  hope  to  have  sufficient  data  to  enable  us  to  lay 
out  the  best  system  of  physical  training  for  all  classes.  Now 
we  have  not  the  light,  we  have  not  the  facts. 

I  have  occupied  considerable  of  your  time  to-day  in  dealing 
with  principles,  because  I  do  not  think  this  is  the  place  to  dis- 
cuss methods.  It  is  the  broad  general  principles  upon  which 
the  subject  is  founded,  upon  which  physical  education  must 
rest  as  a  basis,  that  we  want  to  understand.  Anatomy  and 
physiology  furnish  us  the  foundations.  These  subjects  are  the 
same  throughout  the  civilized  world.  What  we  want  to  do  is  to 
find  out  what  the  laws  of  physiology  are,  and  apply  them  to 
our  systems  of  exercise.  That  is  what  they  are  doing  at  the  great 
Central  Institute  at  Stockholm ;  that  is  what  some  of  us  are 
doing  here.  At  our  training  school  in  Cambridge  we  do  not 
talk  of  methods  or  systems,  but  of  principles. 

Many  teachers  go  into  schools  where  they  have  no  apparatus 
to  work  with.  But  after  seeing  the  pupils  they  know  what  they 
want  to  do,  and  avail  themselves  of  any  agency  at  hand,  as 
books,  chairs,  desks,  etc.,  to  accomplish  the  desired  result. 
Any  teacher  who  is  tied  to  a  system,  or  to  the  apparatus  of 
an  expensive  gymnasium,  is  incapacitated  for  labor  in  this  field ; 
though  these  valuable  adjuncts,  like  books  and  chemical  and 
philosophical  apparatus,  furnish  the  best  facilities  for  accom- 
plishing the  object  in  view. 

If  the  question  were  asked,  whether  the  methods  current  at 


128 

the  Hemenway  Gymnasium  could  be  applied  to  the  public 
schools,  I  should  say  certainly  they  can,  though  they  are  not 
at  present  adapted  to  such  uses,  as  no  demand  until  recently 
has  been  felt  from  this  direction. 

I  realized  sometime  ago  that  the  best  way  to  get  at  the  public 
schools  was  through  the  colleges  and  universities.  There  is  no 
reason  why  the  same  principles  could  not  be  applied  to  the  chil- 
dren of  the  public  schools  as  well  as  to  those  in  the  secondary 
schools. 

Many  things  have  been  said  during  this  convention  that  will 
furnish  food  for  thought  and  themes  for  discussion.  But  I 
think  we  have  no  right  to  consider  this  gathering  a  school.  It 
is  not  for  me  therefore  to  answer  such  questions  as  were  asked 
by  Professor  Curry,  as  to  what  develops  this  joint  or  that  mus- 
cle. These  are  questions  which  a  convention  of  gymnastic 
teachers  might  properly  discuss.  What  we  want  to  get  at  are 
the  broad  underlying  principles  that  furnish  the  physical  basis 
of  education,  that  can  be  applied  to  the  building  of  the  intellect- 
ual faculties,  because  that  must  ever  be  the  chief  end  and  aim 
of  the  school  teacher. 

NILS  POSSE.  —  I  thoroughly  agree  with  the  last  speaker,  that 
the  matter  of  method  is  of  but  little  consequence  comparatively. 
It  is  the  instruction  given  to  the  teacher  which  is  the  essential 
part  to  be  looked  after.  What  we  do  in  Sweden  in  the  way  of 
instructing  a  teacher  to  teach  gymnastics  is  not  to  say,  You 
shall  teach  the  Swedish  system.  We  are  too  broad  for  that. 
We  instruct  him  in  the  theory  of  gymnastics,  and  teach  him 
how  to  use  all  the  material  at  hand,  so  that  really  we  teach  an 
eclectic  system. 

Perhaps  you  may  think  the  Swedish  system  contains  nothing 
but  "light  calisthenics";  if  so,  you  are  mistaken.  It  is  true 
the  Swedish  method  begins  with  very  simple  exercises  ;  because 
a  person's  abilities  are  very  small  when  he  commences,  no 
matter  how  old  he  is.  He  has  to  start  where  the  child  begins, 
not  only  in  mental  matters,  but  in  physical  as  well.  So  also 
here.  As  his  ability  grows,  so  also  the  exercises  change,  and 
the  exercises  that  previously  were  easy  and  gentle  gradually 
become  stronger.  We  do  not  in  our  schools  "keep  children 


I2Q 

eight  or  ten  years  between  the  desks  working  at  the  same 
thing."  We  have  progression.  We  try  to  give  them  as  much 
variety  as  possible  with  such  limited  means  as  desks  and  chairs. 
But  every  high-grade  school  has  its  own  complete  gymnasium, 
where  we  take  the  scholars  for  about  half  an  hour  a  day.  We 
have  three  hundred  (more  or  less)  in  one  group,  and  they  work 
with  apparatus. 

The  instruction  given  to  the  teacher  enables  him  to  use  for 
apparatus  such  simple  things  as  desks  and  chairs.  It  was  stated 
here  that  these  exercises  could  not  be  done  in  the  school-room. 
I  venture  to  say  that  they  can  be  done,  and  are  done  every  day 
in  Boston  schools,  between  desks  and  chairs,  and  that  they  have 
been  used  there  from  day  to  day  for  nearly  a  year.  Those  who 
doubt  can  go  and  see  for  themselves. 

It  was  also  stated  that  the  Swedes  and  other  Europeans  have 
come  over  here  for  information,  because  they  found  that  their 
methods  were  "insufficient."  Do  Americans  go  abroad  to  study 
because  their  country  is  inferior  ?  No ;  they  go  because  they 
wish  to  become  broadened.  So  do  we.  Our  system  is  very 
good  because  it  is  eclectic ;  and  we  are  perfectly  satisfied  with 
its  efficiency.  The  theory  of  gymnastics  recognizes  no  system ; 
for  if  gymnastics  are  founded  on  the  theories  that  should  be 
fundamental  for  all  gymnastics,  they  will  all  be  alike,  or  almost 
alike ;  they  will  be  gymnastics,  and  need  no  distinguishing  pre- 
fix. Why,  then,  do  we  come  here?  Why  do  we  go  and  look 
into  other  systems  ?  Because  we  wish  to  increase  our  material, 
and  to  become  as  broad  as  possible.  We  do  not  say  that  we 
wish  to  have  the  Swedish  system  in  Sweden  because  it  is  Swed- 
ish. We  take  the  best,  no  matter  whose  it  is,  just  as  the  French 
gentleman  has  said,  "  if  your  neighbor  has  something  you  want, 
go  and  take  it,"  provided  he  is  willing  to  give  it. 

Dr.  HARTWELL.  —  I  am  very  glad  to  re-echo  almost  all  of 
what  Mr.  Posse  has  said  in  regard  to  the  Swedish  system. 
It  is  a  system  because  it  proceeds  from  principles  carefully 
thought  out,  by  means  and  measures  carefully  selected,  and  its 
parts  are  joined  together  for  definite  purposes,  with  the  idea  of 
accomplishing  certain  definite  results  at  each  stage  of  the  teach- 
ing. And  I  agree  with  him  entirely  that  the  Swedish  is  based 


130 

upon  physiological  principles ;  but  unfortunately  there  are 
national  prejudices  which  come  in  here  and  there  and  prevent 
the  partisans  of  one  system  from  properly  appreciating  other 
systems  at  their  full  value.  For  instance,  I  found  in  St.  Peters- 
burg a  class  preparing  to  become  teachers  of  gymnastics,  trained 
according  to  what  was  termed  the  Russian-American  system,  its 
originator  having  been  greatly  impressed  by  the  late  Dio  Lewis's 
books,  —  whose  contents  are  largely,  as  I  have  said,  adaptations 
from  the  German  system  of  gymnastics.  Nowadays  Germans 
and  German  institutions  are  not  popular  in  Russia. 

It  is  not  calling  a  thing  by  a  name  that  makes  it  a  system, 
and  that  is  the  point  I  wish  to  urge  in  regard  to  the  so-called 
American  system.  There  is  none.  There  are  various  attempts 
to  systematize  gymnastics  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  under 
different  people,  with  different  and  limited  experiences.  They 
join  various  exercises  together,  and  tag  them  a,  b,  c — x,  y,  2, 
and  claim  that  the  result  is  a  system.  It  reminds  me  of  the 
classification  of  Ohio  colleges  and  universities,  made  by  some 
observant  person  once.  He  said  when  there  were  something 
like  forty  such  institutions,  that  those  that  had  a  building  of 
three  stories  were  called  universities,  while  those  that  had  build- 
ings of  only  two  stories  were  called  colleges.  By  the  time  we 
get  a  three  or  four  story  experience,  and  when  we  have  had  that 
for  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  years,  we  can  begin  to  talk  about  an 
American  system.  The  fact  is,  these  Swedish  and  German  sys- 
tems shade  into  each  other,  having  much  in  common.  Here  is 
one  of  the  last  books  in  Swedish  on  this  subject  of  gymnastics, 
one  of  a  series,  edited  by  Captain  Victor  Balck,  of  the  Central 
Institute  of  Stockholm,  the  best  institution  in  the  world  of  its 
kind.  I  believe  that  the  teachers  from  the  Central  Institute  are 
the  best  in  the  world  of  their  kind,  because  they  are  more  thor- 
oughly taught,  and  for  a  longer  time  than  any  body  of  teachers 
that  I  know  of.  In  this  book  you  will  find  certain  German  exer- 
cises recommended.  When  the  two  systems  are  compared,  it 
will  be  seen  that  certain  exercises  are  left  out  of  one  that  are 
used  in  the  other.  There  was,  at  one  time,  an  attempt  made 
by  a  Prussian  army  officer  named  Rothstein,  to  establish  the 
Swedish  system  in  full  force  in  Prussia,  in  opposition  to  the 


then  partly  developed  system,  which,  being  based  on  the  ideas 
of  Jahn,  was  very  popular.  The  result  has  been  rather  curious. 
Rothstein  banished  certain  pieces  of  Jahn's  apparatus,  such  as 
parallel  bars,  horizontal  bars,  etc.,  from  the  Central  Gymnastic 
Institute  in  Berlin,  of  which  he  was  director.  This  led  to  a 
tremendous  turmoil.  After  some  years  of  discussion  a  medical 
commission  was  formed,  in  whose  deliberations  such  men  as  Vir- 
chow,  Langenbeck,  Du  Bois  Reymond,  took  part,  to  consider 
this  question.  The  result  was  that  the  banished  apparatus  was 
reinstated,  the  decision  of  the  commission  being  that  "the  bar 
exercises  might  be  improved,  from  a  medical  point  of  view,  but 
should  not  be  suppressed." 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  in  Norway  the 
use  of  both  Swedish  and  German  methods  is  common  in  the  gym- 
nastic clubs.  In  the  German  army  certain  pieces  of  apparatus 
constantly  used  are  of  Swedish  origin,  and  they  are  used  accord- 
ing to  the  methods  originally  introduced  by  Rothstein  in  the 
forties.  Our  American  system,  as  it  is  called,  resembles  the 
corner  of  a  crazy  quilt,  as  compared  with  the  design  of  a  Turk- 
ish rug,  when  compared  with  the  Swedish  and  German.  The 
question  with  us  should  be,  How  shall  we  get  the  best  elements 
for  a  system  that  shall  fit  our  case  ?  My  reply  is,  by  carefully 
studying  both  systems.  It  is  largely  a  question  of  taste  and  con- 
venience which  you  introduce.  Do  not  be  in  a  hurry  to  intro- 
duce either.  We  Americans  have  started  off  in  what  may  be 
called  a  bumptious  manner,  in  this  as  in  other  lines.  But  that 
need  not  prevent  us  from  the  saving  grace  of  being  able  to  learn 
from  the  example  and  experience  of  others.  We  are  learning 
all  the  time,  and  we  are  very  willing  to  learn.  We  have  at 
least  established  a  department  of  athletics,  if  not  a  system.  We 
have  an  inherited  taste  for  out-of-door  games  that  is  not  going 
to  be  squelched.  We  have  Dr.  Sargent's  system  of  supervision 
and  guidance,  on  the  one  hand,  and  such  work  as  Dr.  Wey  is 
doing,  on  the  other  hand,  —  building  up  by  physical  training  the 
most  poorly  organized  and  criminal  defectives,  to  show  that  we 
are  capable  of  originating  new  methods.  From  the  experience 
of  the  Elmira  Reformatory  we  have  gained  more  proof  of  the 
capabilities  of  this  work  than  from  the  work  yet  done  in  anv 


132 

college.  It  shows  that  the  effect  of  physical  training,  even  when 
that  training  is  not  of  the  most  elaborate  nature,  is  improved 
brain  power. 

I  have  been  asked  if  I  have  ever  heard  of  devolution. 
Devolution  is  implied  by  evolution.  One  has  but  to  under- 
stand, to  know  that  the  latest  acquired  of  our  movements,  which 
are  the  most  unstable  and  the  most  difficult  of  muscular  move- 
ments, are  those  which  give  way  the  first  under  the  onset  of 
disease.  The  nerve  centres  which  represent  them  are  usually 
the  first  to  be  attacked. 

In  paralysis,  control  over  the  lips  and  tongue  is  sooner  lost 
than  that  over  the  muscles  of  mastication  or  respiration.  Per- 
haps no  better  or  more  striking  example  of  devolution,  pro- 
ceeding from  improper  training  and  the  disregard  of  the  plain 
teachings  of  physiology,  could  be  adduced  than  that  whereby 
a  minister  becomes  a  sore  throat. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Ray  G.  Ruling,  who  also  put  the  motion, 
the  name  of  Dr.  William  T.  Harris  was  made  the  second  name 
on  the  Committee  on  Physical  Training. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Ruling  it  was  voted  that  the  committee 
should  have  power  to  fill  vacancies  made  by  resignation,  and 
that  sufficient  time  to  prepare  a  full  report  should  be  allowed. 

Luther  Gulick,  M.D.,  Director  of  the  Physical  Department  of 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  Springfield,  Mass., 
offered  the  following  resolution  :  — 

Resolved,  That  the  most  cordial  thanks  of  this  Conference  be  extended  to 
Mrs.  Hemenway  and  to  Miss  Homans  for  the  generosity  and  large-mindedness 
that  led  them  to  undertake  and  guide  this  Conference ;  and  to  express  our 
conviction  that  not  only  the  Boston  public  schools,  but  the  whole  cause  of 
physical  education  in  America,  has  received  a  great  impetus  from  this  meeting, 
which  is  the  result  of  their  labors. 

The  motion  was  seconded  by  Dr.  Winfield  S.  Hall  of  Haver- 
ford  College,  and  was  passed  unanimously. 

The  Conference  adjourned. 


NAMES   OF   WRITERS   AND   SPEAKERS. 


Anderson,  W.  G.,  M.D.,  54. 
Blake,  J.  G.,  M.D.,  125. 

Chadwick,  H.  L.,  59. 
Channing,  Walter,  M.D.,  77. 
de  Coubertin,  M.  Pierre,  113. 
Curry,  S.  S.,  115. 

Dunton,  Larkin,  33. 

Eberhard,  Carl,  M. 

Emerson,  C.  W.,  M.D.,  87,  126. 

Enebuske,  Claes  J.,  35. 

Groner,  Emil,  34. 

Gulick,  Luther,  M.D.,  132. 

Hall,  Alice  T.,  M.D.,  59. 

Hall,  Winfield  S.,  132. 

Harris,  W.  T.,  LL.D.,  i,  28. 

Hartwell,  E.  M.,  M.D.,  5,  29,  33,  61, 129. 

Hill,  Lucile  Eaton,  79. 


Hitchcock,  Edward,  M.D.,  32,  56,  57. 
Huling,  Ray  Greene,  81,  96,  98,  132. 

Ingraham,  L.  V.,  M.D.,  82. 
Ladd,  Carolyn  C.,  M.D.,  80. 

Meath,  Earl  of,   51. 
Metzner,  H.,  23. 
Moore,  Hobart,  121. 

Posse,  Nils,  M.G.,  42,  128. 
Putnam,  Helen,  M.D.,  60. 

Reynolds,  John  P.,  M.D.,  33. 

Sargent,  D.  A.,  M. D.,  62,  95,  126 
Seaver,  E.  P.,  28,  32,  33,  96. 

Tousley,  Ruth  C.,  80. 

Walker,  Francis  A.,  85. 
Wey,  Hamilton  D.,  M.D.,  99. 
Whittier,  F.  N.,  M.D.,  83. 


INDEX   OF   SUBJECTS   AND   BOOKS   TO   WHICH 
REFERENCE   IS   MADE. 


Abdominal  exercises,  47. 

Adelphi  Academy,  55. 

Adolph  Spiess,  27,  29. 

American  college  girls,  60. 

American  system  of  gymnastics,  33,  53,  54,  101. 

Americans,  what  they  need,  76. 

Apparatus,  in  United  States,  65. 

Arch-flexions,  46. 

Athletic  Club,  Boston,  23. 

Athletic  sports,  19,  20,  58. 

Atrophy  of  muscles,  13. 


Bagehot's  "  Physics  and  Politics,"  16. 

Balance-movements,  46. 

Berkeley  School,  114. 

Boston  Latin  School,  physical  training  in,  31, 33. 

Boston  School  of  Expression,  115. 

Boston  Turn  Schule,  31. 

Bowdoin  College,  62,  84. 


Catherine  Beecher,  101. 

Characteristics  of  Swedish  system  of  gymnastics, 

The,  42. 

Chest-weights,  45,  73,  73. 
"  Circular  No.  5,"  Bureau  of  Education,  100. 
Committee  on  Physical  Training,  126. 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  106. 
Contraction  of  muscles  under  exercise,  70. 
Cramped  positions,  74,  83. 
Curvature  of  spine  in  school  children,  61. 


D. 

Dio  Lewis,  63,  81,  101,  130. 
Discussions,  28,  51,  59,  77. 
"  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System,"  by  Ross,  u, 

30. 

Dr.  Beck,  29,  30. 
Dr.  Edward  Seguin,  21. 
Dr.  Follen,  30. 
Dr.  Francis  Gardner,  30. 
Dr.  Francis  Lieber,  30. 
Dr.  J.  C.  Warren,  30. 
Dr.  J.  Crichton-Browne,  15,  30. 


Dr.  John  C.  Warren,  30. 
Dr.  Weir  Mitchell,  14. 
Dreams,  of  the  blind,  14. 
Du  Bois  Reymond,  9,  28,  131. 
Dyspepsia  and  gymnastics,  28,  90. 


Effect  of  muscular  action  on  arterial  system,  91. 

Effect  of  exercise  on  muscles,  6;  on  nerves,  7. 

Eiselen,  37. 

Elmira  Reformatory,  109. 

Exercises  of  the  young,  75. 

Exercises,  system  of,  74. 

F. 

Factory  Act,  The,  82. 

"  Father"  Jahn,  27,  39,  30,  too. 

Ferrier,  12. 

Flechsig,  12. 

French  Educational  Reform  Association,  112. 


G. 

George  C.  Shattuck,  TOO. 

German  gymnastics,  19,  20,  21,  33,  33,  24,  31. 

German  system,  24,  101,  130,  131. 

Girls,  exercise  for,  79,  80. 

Girls,  their  need  of  exercise,  134. 

Grace  in  exercise,  92. 

Graceful  gymnastics,  44. 

Greek  culture,  87. 

Greek  excellence,  99. 

Greek  gymnastics,  20,  29,  36. 

Groton  School,  114. 

Guts-Muths,  27,  29. 

Gymnastics,  German  system  of,  23. 

Gymnastics  in  England,  52. 

Gymnastics  with  reference  to  the  voice,  117. 

H. 

Harvard  Annex,  69. 

"  Health  of  Nations,  The,"  82. 

Heaving-movements,  46. 

Hemenway     Gymnasium,    system    of    physical 

training  at,  62. 
Herbert  Spencer,  n. 
"  How  to  get  Strong,"  by  Blaikie,  64. 
Hygiene,  its  relation  to  physical  exercise,  i. 


135 


"  Idiocy,"  by  Edward  Seguin,  M.D.,  106. 
Individuality  developed  by  games,  3. 


J- 

James  B.  Richards,  106. 
Jumping  and  vaulting,  47. 


L. 

Lateral  trunk-movements,  47. 

Lawrenceville  School,  114. 

Laws  to  be  followed  in  teaching  physical  culture, 

87. 
"  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Arnold,"  by  Stan- 

ley, 114. 

Ling  system,  52,  53,  56,  77,  100. 
Literature  on  physical  education,  29. 
London  schools,  gymnastics  in,  51. 


Maclaren,  quotation  from,  71. 

Maclaren's  "  Training  in  Theory  and  Practice," 

8. 

Malcolm  Morris,  30. 
Medical  gymnastics,  44. 
Medical  supervision  of  schools,  61. 
Military  drill,  121,  135. 
Military  drill  for  girls,  134. 
Muscles,  contraction  of,  70. 
Muscular  exercise,  deserves  attention,  16. 
Music,  disapproved  of  by  Swedish  system,  49. 
Music  in  gymnastics,  78. 

N. 

Nature  of  physical  training,  The,  5. 
Nervous  system,  education  of,  17. 
New  physical  education,  The,  3. 

P. 

Pastimes,  19. 

Pedagogic  phase  of  physical  training,  99. 

Percentage  of  girls  receiving  physical  training,  60. 

"  Philosophy  of  Education,"  by  Rosenkranz,  119. 

P.  H.  Ling,  40,  42,  53,  54,  120. 

Physical  care  and  physical  training,  difference 
between,  104. 

Physical  culture,  through  life,  94. 

Physical  education  and  hygiene,  principles  essen- 
tial in,  57. 

Physical  Training,  address  on,  i. 

Physical  training  as  a  pedagogic  measure,  109. 

Physical  training,  best  means  of  securing,  5. 

"  Physical  Training  in  American  Colleges  and 
Universities,"  by  E.  M.  Hartwell,  100. 

"  Physical  Training  of  the  Insane,"  by  Walter 
Channing,  M.D.,  108. 

Physical  training,  pedagogic  phase  of,  99. 


Physical  training,  place  of,  in  rational  education, 

35- 

"  Physics  and  Politics,"  by  Bagehot,  16. 
"  Physiology  of  Exercise,"  by  Du   Bois  Rey- 

mond,  30. 

Physiology  of  exercise,  102. 
Place  of  physical  training  in  a  rational  education, 

the,  35. 
Plato,  22. 
Principles  essential  in  physical  education  and 

hygiene,  57. 

R. 

Real  Schulen,  33. 

Recess  in  schools,  abolishing,  4. 

Record  of  strength  of  students,  68. 

Resolutions,  96,  98,  132. 

Respiratory  exercises,  48. 

Raso's  "  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System,"  1 1, 

29. 

Round  Hill  School,  29,  30. 
Royal  Central  Gymnastic  Institute,  60,  6x. 
Rugby,  114. 

S. 

Schools,  function  of,  17. 

Setting-up  exercise,  122;  for  girls,  134. 

Shoulder-blade  movements,  47. 

Sir  Edwin  Chadwick's  "  The  Health  of  Nations," 

83. 

Slow  leg-movements,  47. 
Sore  throats,  117. 

St.  Paul's  School,  Concord,  N.H.,  too. 
Students,  physical  examinations  of,  65. 
Swedish  gymnastics,  chief  characteristics  of,  42. 
Swedish  movement  cure,  51. 
Swedish  system,  53,  54,  101,  128, 129,  130, 131. 
"  Sylranus,"  story  of,  106. 
System  of  physical  training  at  Hemenway  Gym- 
nasium, The,  62. 

T. 

"  The  Book  of  Health,"  by  Malcolm  Morris,  30. 

"  The  Nervous  System  in  its  Relation  to  Educa- 
tion," by  Crichton-  Browne,  30. 

Thomas  Arnold  and  his  principles,  112. 

Time,  in  schools,  for  gymnastics,  81. 

"Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,"  114. 

"  Training  in  Theory  and  Practice,"  by  Mac- 
laren, 8,  30. 

Tremont  Gymnasium,  30. 

Turners,  in  Germany,  29. 

Turning,  teachers  of,  30. 

Turnvereine,  20,  21,  31. 


Volks  Schulen,  33. 


Will-tension,  2. 


V. 


w. 


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